Erdoğan believes S-400 purchase worth tensions with US
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin speak during their meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Sept. 29, 2021. (AP Photo)
Turkey’s purchase of a Russian-made air defense system was worth the friction with the United States, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has also vowed there is no step back in defense cooperation with Moscow.
“I think it was worth it,” Erdoğan said when asked by editors of The New York Times whether Ankara’s actions had been worth tensions with Washington.
“We can strengthen our defense as we please,” the president told the editors he had received on the sidelines of his last week’s trip to the U.S.
The president reiterated that Ankara has not undermined NATO or the Western alliance by purchasing Russia’s S-400 air defense missile system.
“We buy our own weapons,” Erdoğan said, asserting that both NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and former U.S. President Donald Trump had reaffirmed Turkey’s right to choose arms suppliers.
Erdoğan said Ankara “would not have had to buy S-400s” had the Americans sold Turkey a Patriot missile defense system.
Yet, the president also said the U.S.-Turkish relationship remained fundamentally important.
“Turkey has long U.S. ties,” he said. “This will be reinforced and has to be protected.”
The report on Wednesday came as Erdoğan held talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin
Prior to their meeting, Erdoğan ruled out reversing Turkey’s defense cooperation with Russia.
“There are steps that we have been jointly taking in the defense industry” and it would be beneficial for us to “talk about them,” the president said in televised comments.
“At the U.N. General Assembly, certain people specifically asked about some topics and we have given the necessary answer to them,” he said without elaborating. “It is out of the question for us to reverse steps we have taken.”
Talks are continuing about the delivery of a second batch, and Ankara and Moscow are in the process of signing a new deal in the near future, Alexander Mikheyev, the head of Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport, said in August.
While in New York last week, Erdoğan had reinforced Ankara’s intention to acquire a new batch of S-400 systems.
His statements were followed by calls from the U.S., urging Ankara not to go ahead with the new deal. Some U.S. senators warned that “any new purchases by Turkey must mean new sanctions,” according to a tweet Wednesday by the office of Senate Foreign Relations Chair Robert Menendez.
Turkey’s initial purchase of S-400s strained ties with the U.S. in 2019 and triggered penalties.
The move prompted Washington to remove Turkey from the new generation F-35 Lightning II jet program before it then imposed sanctions on the country’s Defense Industry Presidency (SSB), its chief, Ismail Demir, and three other employees in December
The U.S. argued that the system could be used by Russia to covertly obtain classified details on the Lockheed Martin F-35 jets and that it is incompatible with NATO systems. Turkey, however, insists that the S-400 would not be integrated into NATO systems and would not pose a threat to the alliance.
Erdoğan explained that Turkey was not given the option to buy American-made Patriot missiles and that the U.S. had not delivered F-35 stealth fighter jets despite a payment of $1.4 billion.
Source:dailysabah.com