According to U.S. officials, Türkiye's approval of Sweden's NATO membership opens the door for Ankara to finally acquire American F-16 fighter fighters.
In 2020, Canada halted shipments of drone technology to Türkiye after learning that Azerbaijan had utilized its optical equipment on Turkish-made drones to combat ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno Karabakh, an area that Baku has since retaken.
In 2022, negotiations to lift them were put on hold by Ottawa when Ankara objected to Finland and Sweden's attempts to join NATO. However, during a conference of NATO leaders in July of last year, Reuters reported at the time, negotiations were restarted.
End-user openness
According to the sources, Ankara agreed to give Ottawa information about the final consumers of Canadian-made equipment, particularly if it was shipped to countries outside of NATO. The international arms trade standard "notification process" includes Wescam sensors used in Türkiye's Bayraktar TB2 drones and other dual-use commodities and shipments connected to guns.
According to the first source, the agreement promotes openness and communication between the parties and tries to prevent disputes like to the one that arose in 2021 when Canada claimed that Azerbaijan's use of the camera equipment went outside Türkiye's end-user guarantees. Export limits have been frequently criticized by Ankara as being against the principles of the NATO alliance. It has previously been subject to trade embargoes by Sweden, Germany and France due to its actions in northern Syria and the unrest in the eastern Mediterranean.
Ankara has stated that it would soon be able to manufacture the drone parts it imports, including optical equipment, on its own, even as it has urged Canada to remove the limitations. Turkey's drones have been purchased by several countries, including Ethiopia, Pakistan and Ukraine, following their military victories.
Without providing any details, Türkiye's Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that it had invited Cindy Termorshuizen, the assistant deputy foreign minister of Canada, for discussions on "regional and international issues."
Speaking on Friday, President Tayyip Erdogan stated that "Canada, Sweden, and all Western countries" appreciated Türkiye's ratification of Sweden and saw it as a source of strength within NATO. Türkiye's ratification of Sweden is contingent upon the deposit of the instrument of ratification, the last document, in the U.S. State Department archives, in accordance with NATO regulations.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Sweden launched an admission bid, which was subsequently ratified by Canada, the first member of NATO.
Source: Newsroom
