By Humeyra Pamuk and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to push ahead with the sale of dozens of jet engines to Turkey worth hundreds of millions of dollars despite objections from some members of the U.S. Congress, four sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, an important gesture to Ankara ahead of a NATO summit there next month.
The engines, produced by General Electric, will power Turkey’s first indigenous combat jet KAAN, a major project launched in 2016 as part of NATO member Ankara’s efforts to be more self-sufficient in its defense. One of the sources said the package will be worth more than $700 million.
Turkey and the United States have generally enjoyed warm ties under Trump, who regularly praises Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. However, their relationship has been tested by a long-standing disagreement over Washington’s decision to remove Turkey from the F-35 stealth fighter jet program and impose sanctions after Ankara acquired Russian-made S-400 air defense systems, which the United States says pose a security threat.
Asked on Wednesday about the jet engines, the F-35 program, and his plans for the summit in Ankara, Trump said: “I’m going to probably do something that will make them very happy.”
While the engine sale is likely to be welcomed in Ankara, analysts say it falls well short of Turkey’s broader goal of returning to the F-35 program.
“Acquiring the engines is certainly important for Turkey, but it is also the lowest-hanging fruit for a U.S. administration that has made far more ambitious promises to Ankara, including Turkey’s return to the F-35 program,” said Gonul Tol, director of the Washington-based Middle East Institute’s Turkish program.
“The real test of whether Washington and Ankara can open a new chapter in bilateral relations lies there,” Tol said.
U.S. law does not permit Turkey to operate or possess the S-400 system if it wishes to rejoin the F-35 program. However, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said in December that the warm relationship between Trump and Erdogan helped the two sides hold “the most fruitful conversations we have had on this topic in nearly a decade.”
The Turkish foreign ministry declined to comment for this story.
Turkey will host NATO leaders amid tensions within the alliance over burden-sharing, defense spending and U.S. complaints about allies’ role in efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open during the U.S.-Iran war.
OBJECTIONS
Turkey’s 2019 acquisition of the Russian air defense systems hampered congressional support for the U.S. ally, although lawmakers ultimately approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets in 2024.
Some of that sentiment persists. Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, had raised objections during an informal review process and has not given his green light for the package, two of the sources, including a U.S. official, said.
In a statement on Wednesday, Meeks criticized what he described as the administration’s failure to make a “good-faith” effort to brief him on the implications of the sale for bilateral ties as well as Turkey’s possession of the S-400s.
“These items will not be delivered for years, and the administration repeatedly ignored persistent requests for information and clarification on key aspects of U.S. policy,” Meeks said.
Despite his objection, the decision to go ahead with the sale is expected to be finalized in the coming days, followed by a formal notification from the State Department to Congress, the sources said. The congressional review process is designed to allow lawmakers to weigh in on large sales but the objections are not binding if a U.S. administration wishes to press ahead with the sale.
The Trump administration has bypassed, or threatened to bypass, congressional holds on several weapons sales.
“As a matter of general policy, we do not comment on pending arms transfers. Official correspondence with Congress is conducted through official channels,” a State Department official said.
Speaking alongside Trump, Vance said a review was under way to see if Turkey has complied with the U.S. laws so it can receive the F-35 fighter jets.
“Pete and the entire team are reviewing this right now, because there are certain things that we have to certify have happened … in order to comply with American law,” he said, referring to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Frustrated by past hot-cold ties with the West and some arms embargoes, Turkey has developed its own Kaan stealth fighter. Yet officials acknowledge it will take years before it replaces the American-made F-16s that form the backbone of its air force.
The U.S. decision to move forward with the sale comes nearly a year after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan publicly complained about what he described as a hold-up in the process.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara Editing by Don Durfee and Sanjeev Miglani)
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