Why is the White House so keen on bringing Turkey back into the F-35 program?
A proposal is reportedly on the table that could potentially see the US gain control of Turkey’s S-400s in return for Ankara re-joining the F-35 program. This has many asking why the Biden administration is in a rush to find a way to bring Turkey back into a program that it was ejected from as a result of Ankara’s embrace of Russia and behavior that is antithetical to NATO. Sinan Ciddi joins Thanos Davelis to look into this developing story, and make the case that Turkey should prove it is ready to embrace NATO before Washington begins to open the door to any arms deals like the F-35s.
Sinan Ciddi is a non-resident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he contributes to FDD’s Turkey Program and Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). He is also an Associate Professor of Security Studies at the Command and Staff College-Marine Corps University and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:
Turkey should prove it is ready to embrace NATO
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