ANKARA—President Donald Trump announced, on July 7, that he is working to lift sanctions preventing Turkey from obtaining F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets.
Turkey was an early partner on the F-35 program, but was barred from obtaining the advanced aircraft after purchasing Russian S-400 air defense systems in 2019. These S-400 purchases ran afoul of the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.
“We’re going to be taking the sanctions off,” Trump told reporters, following a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday. “It’s time to do that.”
Reversing sanctions will require multiple steps. A provision of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act requires the Secretaries of State and War to certify that Turkey’s military no longer operates the S-400 and has offered assurances it will not accept such Russian air defense systems, before it can begin receiving F-35s….
Trump Says US Lifting Sanctions to Allow F-35 Sales to Turkey
