Trump weighs restoring Turkey’s access to F-35 jets at NATO summit

Trump will tell President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that he is ready to restore Turkey’s access to F-35 jets when the two leaders meet at the NATO summit in Ankara, reversing the ban Trump helped impose in 2019. The move would reopen the dispute rooted in Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 air and missile defense system and in U.S. fears that Russian hardware could expose F-35 stealth technology.

On July 17, 2019, the White House said the F-35 could not coexist with a Russian intelligence-collection platform that would be used to learn about its advanced capabilities. The Pentagon said Turkey could not have both the S-400 and the fifth-generation fighter, and Turkey was formally removed from the program that same day after taking delivery of the Russian system. U.S. officials began unwinding Turkey from the F-35 program that year, ending Ankara’s place in a project it had joined as a major partner and buyer.

The 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara is scheduled for July 7-8, and it will be Türkiye’s second time hosting a NATO summit, after Istanbul in 2004. Erdoğan will raise the F-35 issue directly with Trump, while Turkish officials continue to argue that the 2019 removal was unfair and lacked legitimate justification. Trump told Erdoğan he was likely to do something that would make him “very happy” on the F-35 question, and U.S. officials are reviewing whether Turkey has met the legal criteria to receive the jets again.

Congress has kept bipartisan restrictions in place over the S-400 purchase, and lawmakers have repeatedly tied any restoration to the status of the Russian system and to sanctions under CAATSA.

Turkish officials are pushing for broader defense cooperation, including possible progress on engine sales for the indigenous KAAN fighter and work on the SAMP/T air-defense system with European partners.