Turkey’s Erdogan: Biden will do ‘his best’ for F-16 sale

By SUZAN FRASER
Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s President says his U.S. counterpart has told him that he would do “his best” to ensure that the U.S. Congress and Senate would approve a Turkish request to purchase American-made F-16 fighter jets. Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said that U.S. President Joe Biden warned him that there was only a fifty-fifty chance for the sale’s approval. Turkey was kicked out of a U.S. program to buy F-35 combat planes after it bought Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems. Turkey is trying to recover a $1.4 billion payment it made for the F-35 program and Erdogan has said the U.S. proposed selling F-16 fighter jets to make up for it.