According to Forbes, Trump announced during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Turkey and consider F-35 sales. The move reverses years of U.S. penalties tied to Turkey's 2019 purchase of Russia's S-400 air defense system—the same decision that ejected Ankara from the F-35 program.
Lifting sanctions without resolving the core security problem sends a message that rules around sensitive military technology are negotiable when politics demand it. That message ripples through every NATO capital and raises questions about whether alliance commitments hold when convenient. Turkey remains a treaty ally with Russian systems embedded in its arsenal. That fact hasn't changed.
Turkey was removed from the F-35 program in 2019 after buying Russia's S-400 system. U.S. officials feared the radar could expose classified details about the fighter jet's capabilities. The dispute became a symbol of a deeper tension: Turkey is a NATO member that repeatedly tests how far it can drift toward Moscow while still accessing Western military technology.
This reads like impulse bargaining, not strategy. Trump is treating one of the West's most sensitive weapons programs like a relationship reset button. The original breach wasn't about hurt feelings. It was about trust, interoperability, and Russian systems sitting inside a NATO member's arsenal. If the administration wants to reward Erdogan, there are other tools. The F-35 shouldn't be one of them.
Filed to the Media desk · Jul 7