US Vice President Mike Pence warned Turkey on Wednesday against purchasing a Russian S-400 anti-missile system, keeping up the pressure on its NATO ally to abandon the purchase that Washington considers a threat to US military equipment.
“Turkey must choose. Does it want to remain a critical partner in the most successful military alliance in history or does it want to risk the security of that partnership by making such reckless decisions that undermine our alliance?” Pence said in remarks at a NATO event in Washington.
The United States and Turkey have been at loggerheads over Ankara’s decision to purchase the S-400s, which are not compatible with NATO systems, from Russia.
Ankara had proposed to Washington that they form a working group to determine that the S-400 systems do not pose a threat to US or NATO military equipment, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.
“It will not be integrated into the NATO system...therefore we propose the United States to establish a technical working group to make sure that this system will not be a threat - neither to (US) F-35s nor the NATO systems,” Cavusoglu told a panel in the United States.
He said it was “not our aim” to integrate the S400 system into that of NATO because “it’s for our own use.”
Turkey and the administration of US President Donald Trump need to explain to the US Congress why Ankara had to go through with the purchase from the Russians, Cavusoglu said.
Turkey says it needs the S-400s, to be delivered in July, to defend against potential security threats and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said he would not back down from the “done deal.”
Cavusoglu, in Washington for a NATO summit, said he would “definitely” repeat this to US counterparts during his visit.
Seeking to apply pressure, the United States halted delivery of equipment related to the stealthy F-35 fighter aircraft to Turkey, its first concrete step to block delivery of the jets due to Ankara’s planned purchase of the S-400s.
A US official on Tuesday said that the purchase risked triggering sanctions. Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan later said that he expected the dispute to be resolved.
In a broader move to stop the delivery of the fighter jets, four US senators introduced a bipartisan bill last week to prohibit the transfer of F-35 aircraft until Washington can certify Turkey will not take the delivery of the S-400s.
