Announcements made by US President Donald Trump in Ankara on Tuesday regarding the possibility of Turkey’s return to the F-35 program are the product of lengthy, slow-moving processes that have been underway since the first weeks of his return to the White House. Arriving at the NATO summit, Trump said on Tuesday he would lift sanctions on Turkey and make a decision on a potential sale of F-35s to Ankara.
Athens has been aware of these developments, often through the Americans themselves. However, a series of military incidents in the Middle East since last summer, along with parallel frictions between the government of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel and US officials in both the executive and legislative branches, had pushed the issue into a temporary impasse.
Greek officials recognize that any solution to sanctions imposed under CAATSA would not automatically remove the separate obstacle concerning the export of the fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet. Such a step would require separate legislation by Congress.
Experienced observers told Kathimerini that, given Trump’s broader willingness to overturn established approaches on a range of issues, they would not rule out what they described as the ideal scenario for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: a gradual return to the F-35 program while retaining the Russian-made S-400 missile system, coupled with a pledge that the system would not be activated except in cases of absolute necessity.
