What Awaits Türkiye in the US 2022 Defence Budget?

PUGAT News Analysis / Mehmet Kılıçparlar

A White House statement in recent days said that US President Joe Biden had signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed by Congress in the first half of December, which authorises 768 billion dollars in defence spending for fiscal year 2022.

With Biden’s signature, a huge defence budget totalling 768.2 billion dollars became law: 740 billion for the Department of Defense budget, 27.8 billion for defence spending within the Department of Energy and 0.4 billion for other defence spending.

The National Defense Authorization Act was submitted to President Joe Biden for approval after being passed by the House of Representatives on 7 December and by the Senate on 15 December.

What Is in the NDAA?

The law, which provides for a 2.7 per cent pay rise for military personnel, also contains many structural and administrative reform provisions, such as combating sexual assault, extremism and racism in the US military.

Support for Ukraine Against Russia Will Continue

The law, which raises military aid to Ukraine, on whose borders the Russian army has massed troops, from 250 million to 300 million dollars a year, includes the transfer of 4 billion dollars to the platform established against Russia called the “European Deterrence Initiative” and 100 million dollars in military aid to the Baltic countries.

The law also provides for the creation of an independent Afghanistan War Commission to examine the 20 years the US military spent in Afghanistan, following the US withdrawal.

Partial Boycott Decision Against China’s Uyghur Genocide

While allocating 7.1 billion dollars to the “Pacific Deterrence Initiative” set up against China, the law prohibits the Department of Defense from buying products made in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Providing for “China’s military moves in the region to be closely monitored”, the law calls for cooperation with Taiwan to continue and increase and for the Taiwanese military to be “kept modern”.

Syria and Iraq

The NDAA contains several provisions on Iraq and Syria.

The law, which proposes continued support for Iraqi security forces as well as for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are linked to the YPG, calls on President Biden to “present a comprehensive strategy” on Syria.

Provisions on Türkiye and Azerbaijan Were Also Added

Bills submitted as amendments to the NDAA by Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to closely monitor Türkiye’s armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UCAV) programme and to remove the waiver preventing aid to Azerbaijan from being cut were also added to the NDAA.

Relations with Greece Will Be Increased

A bill titled the “US–Greece Defense and Interparliamentary Partnership Act”, submitted as an amendment by Menendez and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, was also added to the NDAA.

The law includes full support for Greece’s military modernisation, approval and acceleration of sales of new American military equipment, and expansion of cooperation between Southern Cyprus, Greece, Israel and the US.

Among the provisions of the law is also the US President’s authority to speed up the procurement and delivery process should Greece acquire F-35 fighter jets from the US.

After Türkiye wanted to buy the S-400 air defence system, the US had built up thousands of additional military vehicles in Greece and decided to increase the number of bases in the country. This had led to comments that the US no longer saw Türkiye as a strategic partner.

Türkiye’s 2022 Defence Budget Is 16 Billion Dollars

Türkiye’s 2022 defence budget, meanwhile, was set at 181 billion TL (16 billion dollars), an increase of about 30 per cent compared with 2021. This figure is about 2% of the US defence budget. Given Türkiye’s removal from the F-35 project, its failure to have its F-16s modernised, the support for Greece and the legitimisation and support of the YPG in Syria, I believe it would not be an exaggeration to say that no close relationship can be established between Türkiye and the US in 2022 either.