The president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the lifting of US sanctions that block his country’s defense procurement and other measures taken “unilaterally” and hinder the ability of NATO allies to achieve long-term bilateral trade goals.

During his visit to New York, as part of the 79th UN General Assembly meeting, Erdogan participated in the 15th Turkish Investment Conference, organized by the Turkish-American Business Council.

The Turkish president told Turkish and American businessmen that defense industry cooperation had “fallen far behind” its potential due to remaining US restrictions: “Unfortunately, our defense industry cooperation has fallen far behind its capabilities due to the limitations of recent years. We hope that we have opened a new page with the F-16 modernization program and we expect that the export barriers in this area will be permanently removed.”

He cited as an example of cooperation with the US and the dynamism of the Turkish defense industry the production in Texas by a Turkish company of 155 mm ammunition, which the United States exports to Ukraine. “Your support is important to advancing existing programs and creating new partnerships that will contribute to our shared security. I believe that the American business world can play a more effective role in supporting our efforts,” the Turkish president said.

He also called for an end to unilateral practices such as additional tariffs on iron, steel and aluminum and sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Relations between the countries have been hit in recent years by their differences in Kurdish, Syria, the eastern Mediterranean and Gaza. Ankara’s purchase of Russian air defense systems S-400 prompted US sanctions and Turkey’s withdrawal from the F-35 fighter jet program in 2019. However, Ankara and Washington have set a long-term goal of growing bilateral trade to $100 billion, from about $30 billion in 2023.

“Economy and trade are one of the most important parameters of our relations with the US. Over the past two years, America has become the second country to which we export the most products and the fifth country from which we import the most products. Our bilateral trade volume exceeded 30 billion dollars last year. As I have stated many times, we have great potential to steadily increase the indicators of bilateral trade,” said President Erdoğan.

He also stated that he sincerely believes that the joint goal of $100 billion in trade volume can be achieved with good planning. In particular, he said: “To this end, unilateral practices such as additional tariffs, CAATSA investigations and sanctions in the iron and steel and aluminum sectors must now be abandoned. We expect you, the representatives of the business sectors, to take the necessary initiatives to remove the obstacles that make us mutually lose.”

Erdogan further asserted that Turkey has a large, strong and highly potential economy and is one of the five countries in the world with a population of 85 million and a per capita income of more than 13 thousand dollars, along with the US, Japan, Russia and Mexico.

Yesterday, Monday, President Erdogan met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Apart from the F-16s, Turkey has also been interested in the European Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet, co-produced by Britain, Spain and Germany, but faces Berlin’s refusal to sell them.