US F-16 'deal' for Turkey's re-election of Erdogan and Sweden's accession to NATO

US F-16 'deal' for Turkey's re-election of Erdogan and Sweden's accession to NATO

The F-16, which the US announced to stop production in 2024, is rapidly turning into a top purchase weapon in the war with Ukraine, and attempts to trade the F-16 for Turkey's re-election of Erdogan and Sweden's accession to NATO.
US President Joe Biden said shortly after the results of the Turkish presidential election, "I spoke with Erdogan (reelected Turkish president) and he still wants to work on the F-16. I told him I want to negotiate with Sweden. So let's finish it." said, the AP reported on the 30th.
Sweden's application to join NATO was delayed due to Turkey's objection (it is impossible to join NATO if it opposes membership), and Sweden also requested the purchase of F-16s from the United States, so it seems that the F-16 transaction was linked to Turkey's support for the re-election of President Erdogan.
"Now is the right time for Turkey to withdraw its opposition to Sweden's NATO membership," US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on the 30th, the Associated Press reported.
The Associated Press reported on the day that “the Biden administration said it believed it should provide Turkey with upgraded F-16 fighter jets ‘as soon as possible’.
"Both of these are, in our judgment, very important for European security," Blinken said at a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Wolf Christersson in Lulea, Sweden. I believe we have to move forward, that is, Sweden joins the F-16 package and moves forward more broadly.”
"President Erdogan, who won a strong re-election victory over the weekend, may be willing to moderate his opposition to Sweden's NATO membership," the AP said. and a series of Quran-burning protests in Stockholm angered his religious support base, making his tough stance even more famous.”
Turkey's Kristersson told reporters that "the two sides have been in touch since Sunday's vote" and did not hesitate to tell them about the advantages Sweden would bring to NATO, "when we join the alliance," the Associated Press reported.
Minister Blincoln held a press conference in Sweden to attend the 'US-EU Trade and Technology Committee', and after a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Oslo, Norway on the 31st, he plans to move to Finland, a newly joined NATO member country, on June 2nd, so NATO expansion Diplomacy seems connected to the F-16 deal.
Speaking in Oslo ahead of the foreign ministers' meeting, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, "The goal is to include Sweden in NATO before the summit in July. It's absolutely possible to make that happen," he told the AP.
NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg came to Korea earlier and tried to negotiate a deal to supply 155mm shells to Ukraine and share NATO's nuclear information.
The F-15K was selected as Korea's next-generation fighter (FX) business model in 2002, and 40 units were delivered by 2008.
The Korean fighter jet business (KFP) imported 40 F-16s directly from the US, and 140 KF-16 fighters were assembled from 1992 to 2004 through assembly and manufacturing in Korea, and the KF-21, a derivative product, was signed to export to Poland as a Korean model. .
Boeing, the primary manufacturer of fighter jets, demanded 90 billion won per unit to upgrade the F-15k sold to Korea to the K-15EX, which was upgraded for battlefield deployment, as fighter jets are essential to upgrade in battlefield deployment.