A round of consultations held by the Türkiye-US Strategic Mechanism to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues, concluded in Ankara on Monday.
The two-day meetings were co-chaired by Acting Deputy Secretary of State and Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland and Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akcapar.
The Türkiye-US Strategic Mechanism was initiated on April 4, 2022 following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Joe Biden in Rome in October 2021.
On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Nuland in Ankara.
Nuland also held meetings with Türkiye's Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmet Yildiz. The two officials exchanged views on the developments in the Middle East and Africa.
Ending years of negotiations, the US government on Friday approved a $23 billion deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Türkiye, after Ankara ratified Sweden's NATO membership, which was an urgent American demand.
As required by US law, the State Department notified Congress of the agreement, as well as a separate $8 billion sale of 40 F-35s to Greece.
Türkiye will get 40 new F-16s and upgrades to 79 of the jets in its existing fleet, the State Department said in a statement.
The US did not green-light the transaction until Türkiye's instruments of ratification of Sweden's membership had arrived in Washington, a US official said.
Türkiye's parliament ratified Sweden's NATO membership on Tuesday after more than a year of delays that upset Western efforts to show resolve in the face of Russia's war on Ukraine.
Erdogan signed the membership instrument only 48 hours after the parliament’s approval, and 24 hours after Biden sent a letter to key lawmakers urging Congress to proceed with the sale to Türkiye.
The F-16 deal has been a thorny issue in the Ankara-Washington relations, marred by years of tension. This rift emerged when the US withheld the transfer of advanced F-35 stealth fighters to Türkiye, citing concerns over its acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile air defense system.
