The U.S. Congress approved the draft defense budget for 2023. According to the document, the ban on the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey was excluded from the US defense budget.
Previously, the defense spending bill stated that the sale of the F-16 could only be made under certain conditions. It was about “a ban on the use of new Turkish F-16 fighters over the skies of Greece”, obviously meeting the interests of groups close to the Greek lobby. There are no such restrictions in the final version of the bill.
Turkey has repeatedly stated that it is waiting for progress and concrete steps, but the United States does not seem to be in a hurry. Washington is trying to adopt the Turkish bargaining strategy and is forcing Ankara to wait and hope. The Republic of Turkey has been unable to obtain approval for the purchase of 40 new F-16 fighter jets and components for the modernization of 80 already in service for a year now.
No matter how the Americans overexpose the Turks, you need to know the measure in everything. Fallbacks and alternatives can become mainstream overnight. And Turkey is slowly but surely moving further and further away from the United States.
Vladimir Avatkov, RT
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