President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statements during the critical NATO summit in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, have grabbed the world's attention.
While the world discusses the decisions made at the summit, US President Joe Biden made the first F-16 statement, saying, "I am ready to work with President Erdoğan and Türkiye to enhance defense and deterrence in the Europe-Atlantic region." A notable statement also came from the White House. NATO also made an F-16 statement.
Biden, in his written statement, said that President Erdoğan welcomes the statement released by Türkiye, Sweden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, including the commitment to forward Sweden's NATO accession protocol to the Turkish Grand National Assembly for approval.
Biden expressed his eagerness to welcome Sweden as NATO's 32nd ally. He also thanked NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg for his steadfast support.
The U. S. Department of State openly expressed their support for the sale of F-16s to Türkiye and stated that they would continue to support Türkiye 's European Union aspirations.
From the Department of State , Matthew Miller said: "We have publicly expressed our support for the sale of F-16s to Türkiye for some time, and we also convey this message to them in private discussions. However, there is a group of congressional members who believe that this issue should be connected to Türkiye 's NATO membership, although we may not share that belief."
