Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Tuesday that Turkey will fulfill its commitment to ratify Sweden's NATO accession, contingent on Washington honoring its

commitments to Ankara, particularly regarding the sale of F-16 fighter jets.

Erdogan made these remarks while returning from the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, which borders Turkey. He recalled that his Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his American counterpart Antony Blinken had discussed Sweden's NATO accession during their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly summit in New York last Friday.

Erdogan expressed his hope that if the United States keeps its promises, the Turkish parliament will also act accordingly. However, he did not provide further details, according to the Turkish presidency's Communication Directorate.

When asked whether he was referring to the pending Turkish bid to purchase new F-16 jets and modernization kits from the United States, Erdogan noted the linkage between Sweden and the F-16s. In response, he stated, "If you have a Congress, we have a parliament."

Turkey had requested to acquire $20 billion worth of F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits in October 2021. Some members of the U.S. Congress have raised objections to this sale, but their stance could potentially soften if Ankara ratifies Sweden's bid, improves relations with Greece, and maintains a certain distance from Russia.

As of now, Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO member states that have not ratified Sweden's NATO accession, despite Sweden formally applying to join the transatlantic alliance last year.

In July, a trilateral statement between Turkey, Sweden, and NATO, announced on the sidelines of the Vilnius summit, saw Erdogan granting his country's ratification of Sweden's NATO accession but postponing it to October, coinciding with the return of the Turkish Parliament from its summer recess.

Earlier this month, Erdogan added further uncertainty to the matter by stating that the decision to greenlight Sweden's application rested with the Turkish Parliament, rather than him personally. His ruling coalition holds a parliamentary majority, and he mentioned that further discussions would be held with coalition partners regarding the issue.

Erdogan also took a moment to criticize Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the former head of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who resigned from the post last week following allegations of involvement in a bribery scheme related to Egypt. Erdogan mentioned Menendez's opposition to the sale of new jet fighters to Turkey, stating that "Menendez's exclusion would give us an advantage, but the F-16 issue is not something that solely depends only on Menendez." Photo by World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, Wikimedia commons.