Erdogan urges US to lift defense industry sanctions despite lack of concrete steps toward Sweden’s NATO membership

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday reiterated his call for the US government to lift sanctions on Turkey’s defense industry during his visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

During his address at the 13th Turkish Investment Conference in New York, Erdogan emphasized the significance of economic and trade interactions between Turkey and the United States in the context of their bilateral relations. He highlighted that over the past decade bilateral trade between the two countries has expanded by a factor of 1.5, with the US Turkey’s second-largest export destination and fifth-largest source of imports last year. Erdogan also noted that by the end of 2022 the bilateral trade volume had surged by more than 15 percent, surpassing $32 billion.

Nevertheless, there is a message that Erdogan sought to deliver through his speech. He called for the removal of obstacles in arms sales imposed by the US.

Turkey’s most significant procurement challenge involves acquiring new F-16 fighter jets from the United States to upgrade its outdated fleet. In 2021 the US administration officially removed Turkey from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program due to Ankara’s purchase of a Russian S-400 missile system in 2017.

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