US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan meet

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Benjamin Cardin and committee member senators as part of his contacts in Washington.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin evaluated his meeting with Hakan Fidan to VOA Turkish. Stating that the meeting was productive, Senator Cardin said, “Turkey is an important NATO ally... We also conveyed our concerns regarding Syria and human rights.”

"WE CELEBRATED SWEDEN'S NATO ACCESSION"

Cardin stated that the meeting with Foreign Minister Fidan was productive and took place on a friendly basis; he said, “We had the opportunity to celebrate Sweden's accession to NATO. We also went over the F-16 sale.”

Noting that they also raised some concerns during the meeting with Hakan Fidan, Senator Cardin expressed, “We have concerns regarding America's efforts to combat ISIS in Syria, as well as concerns about journalists in prison and human rights. We discussed these issues in a candid manner.”

Stating that Hakan Fidan touched upon areas of interest where there could be stronger cooperation with the US, Senator Cardin drew attention to the role Turkey plays regarding Ukraine.

"WE TRUST TURKEY"

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair said, “Turkey is an important NATO ally that has been incredibly helpful regarding Ukraine. In this sense, we trust Turkey. We hope to see that relations with Turkey will strengthen even further.”

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is expected to raise the request for the US to lift the CAATSA sanctions it continues to impose on Turkey as part of his contacts in Washington.

THE F-35 ISSUE WAS ALSO DISCUSSED

Turkey was removed from the F-35 program, of which it was a manufacturing partner, due to the S-400 missile defense system it purchased from Russia, and became the first NATO member to be sanctioned under the US Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on the grounds that it cooperated with Russia in the field of defense.

Turkey has not activated the S-400s it purchased from Russia in 2019, which the US also assessed as a security risk to F-35 fighter jets.

Senator Ben Cardin stated that the F-35 issue was also brought up during his meeting with Hakan Fidan and that Turkey's return to the program was discussed, but that they focused more on the F-16 sale.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee play a key role in the US approval process for the sale of weapons and defense equipment to other countries.

The US Department of State had made an official notification to Congress for the sale of new F-16s and 70 modernization kits to Turkey worth approximately 20 billion dollars; simultaneously, it also notified the sale of F-35s for Greece. It was stated that these sales were not expected to change the fundamental military balance in the region.

In an interview during her contacts in Turkey in recent weeks, US Department of State official Victoria Nuland signaled that Turkey's return to the F-35 program could be a subject open to discussion, stating that for this to happen, US concerns regarding the S-400 issue must be addressed.