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 the U.S. Congress, four sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, a significant 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 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.
Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, had raised objections during the informal review process and has not given his green light for the package, two of the sources, including a U.S. official, said.
Despite that, 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 State Department declined to comment.
The 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.
Turkey will host NATO leaders on July 7 to 8 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.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Phil Stewart; Editing by Don Durfee and Sanjeev Miglani)
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