The assessment that the US government has moved one step closer to his position Congress on the issue of the F-16 fighters that Turkey wants to acquire, the senator expressed Robert Menendez. Responding to a question from APE-MPE, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that he believes the White House is now closer to the position that there should be a safety net that would prevent Turkey from using American fighters for violation of Greek sovereignty.

The American senator argued that Sweden’s accession should normally be an independent process based solely on the accession criteria. However, he acknowledged that there are other factors at play in the process given that decisions in NATO are taken by consensus and this leaves room for countries such as Hungary and Turkey to negotiate on individual issues. At this point, however, he pledged that democratic and reliable NATO allies, such as Greece, would be in a strong position the next day regardless of the outcome of these negotiations.

“So we will see what, if anything, the government will propose on this matter. Of course, my veto of F-16s for Turkey it is not something that is written in the law. It is something that is an unwritten rule. If the government chooses to override it, I will oppose it and there will be consequences with the things I can do. They can do this by overriding the veto. So I have to make sure that our real partners, like Greece, are in a good position regardless of what happens in the next few days regarding NATO and Turkey,” Senator Menendez noted.

Finally, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee referred to the talks he had with the US Secretary of State and the White House National Security Adviser on this issue. “I have discussed with Minister Blinken the importance of Greece in terms of being a reliable NATO ally and they need to take that into account in their studies and I had a very brief discussion at an early level with Jake Sullivan,” he said.