Arms Sales to India, Turkey Must be Expedited: U.S. Sec. of State Blinken

The U.S. should remove bureaucratic hurdles and speed-up arms sales to India and Turkey to prevent their cooperation with Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Asked during a congressional testimony what the Biden administration can do “to cut through the red tape to help our work with our allies such as Turkey and India,” Blinken acknowledged that the processes need to be hurried at both the executive and congressional levels.

“I think that we can and should do better in sales, particularly in the rapidity with which we’re able to do things, review things. I think that’s on us in the executive branch. It’s also on Congress,” he told the House Appropriations Committee.

Both India and Turkey signed multi-billion dollar deals for S-400 missile systems with Russia, despite the looming threat of American sanctions. Ankara was removed from the F-35 program and was denied the jets. It has called the move unjust and demanded reimbursement for its $1.4 billion payment.

“A number of countries, as I said earlier, are rethinking their relationships, including with Russia, including countries that have had long-standing defense relationships with Russia. If we’re in a position to be a partner to them in ways that maybe we couldn’t be some decades ago, I think that’s something we need to be able to act on,” Blinken said. He added, “Of course, if we don’t, we know who’s likely to do it in our place.”

During a phone call on March 10, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden that it was past time to lift all "unjust" sanctions on Turkey's defense industry and that Turkey expected its request to purchase F-16s to be finalized as soon as possible.