INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Turkey on Sunday for an official visit and discussions on how Washington can further assist Ankara as it grapples with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people.
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey’s southeast and neighboring Syria on Feb. 6, killing more than 45,000 people and leaving a million-plus people homeless, with the economic cost of the disaster expected to run into billions of dollars.
Also topping the agenda will be the stalled NATO bids of Sweden and Finland, which Turkey has so far refused to ratify, saying Stockholm in particular has harbored what it calls members of terrorist groups. Ankara has recently indicated it would approve only Finland.
The top U.S. diplomat landed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey’s southern province of Adana on Sunday afternoon, from where he was set to take a helicopter tour of the quake-struck area with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Blinken will hold further bilateral talks in Ankara on Monday.
He is also expected to meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, sources familiar with the planning said.
Since the earthquake, the United States has sent a search and rescue team to Turkey, along with medical supplies, concrete-breaking machinery and additional funding of $85 million in humanitarian aid that also covers Syria.
Blinken’s first visit to Turkey as secretary of state has been in the works for some time but comes two years after he took office. That is in stark contrast with some of his predecessors, including Hillary Clinton and Rex Tillerson, who made the visit within the first three months of their terms.
The delay, analysts say, shows the strained nature of the relationship, which has soured particularly since 2019 when Ankara acquired Russian missile defense systems.
While the United States has praised Turkey for some of its actions during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it remains concerned about its close relationship with Moscow, experts say.
NATO DEADLOCK
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the trans-Atlantic defense pact after Russia invaded Ukraine but faced unexpected objections from Turkey and have since sought to win its support.
Ankara wants Helsinki and Stockholm in particular to take a tougher line against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered a terror group by Turkey and the European Union, and another group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
Erdogan last month said he was open to ratifying only Helsinki’s application.
Linked to the membership bids is Turkey’s desire to buy U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets. U.S. Congress has objected to a sale unless Ankara gives the green light for the Nordic accession process, at least.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen echoed that sentiment on Saturday, saying that allowing Finland to join the alliance alone would not be enough.
“There will be no transfer of F-16s if Erdogan continues to deny admission to Finland and Sweden … He doesn’t get to have Finland in and the F-16s approved and I think that’s a broad sentiment,” Van Hollen said in an interview.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said it supports the sale. While it has refrained from linking the two issues, it has acknowledged that the approval for the Nordic countries would have a positive impact among members of Congress.
Turkey has expressed its frustration that the issues are increasingly seen as linked. Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviseer, last month said he hoped the F-16 deal would not become “hostage” to the NATO memberships of Sweden and Finland.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Daniel Wallis and David Goodman)
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