Turkey is threatening to block Sweden and Finland’s NATO bids not because it wants to side with Russia but to achieve significant geopolitical rewards by exploiting the perpetual weakness the US is exhibiting towards her, Bloomberg reports.
The main goal of the Turkish government, as the piece claims is the procurement of weapons systems from Turkey and Germany. The Turks also demand the supply of F-35 fighters as well as the new F-16 Viper.
Bloomberg spoke to three senior Turkish officials about what their government is seeking to achieve.
These officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorised to disclose any details publicly about internal government consultations.
They revealed that Turkey wants to rejoin the program of advanced 5th generation F-35 aircraft, from which it was excluded after purchasing S-400 anti-missile defence systems from Russia.
It also has a pending request to the US to buy dozens of F-16 fighter jets and upgrade its existing fleet of a total of 80 aircraft.
In addition, Turkey wants the US to lift sanctions against it over the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system.
Turkey seems to be taking advantage of the circumstances amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the US push for the accession of Finland in particular and Sweden in the second place, to NATO.
The Americans want Finland in every way and through NATO because of the 1,300 km-long border with Russia.
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