Turkey Won't Budge On Russian-Made S-400S, President Erdogan Tells President Biden
Turkey will not take new steps to resolve disputes around US-made F-35 jets and Russian-made S-400 missile systems with the United States, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told his US counterpart Joe Biden on Thursday.
The US sanctioned Turkish government officials last year over Ankara’s acquisition of S-400s from Russia. Washington also officially kicked Turkey out of the F-35 programme last month over concerns that the Russian military could collect intelligence on the jets through the S-400s deployed to Turkey.
“Don’t expect us to take a different step, I told him,” Erdogan said in an interview on Thursday with journalists accompanying him to Azerbaijan. “[I told him that] we did our part on the F-35 and paid the money required.
"With regard to the S-400, we asked for Patriots [missile defence system] from [the US] and you didn’t provide us. On the contrary, you have withdrawn the ones which were deployed in our bases.”
US Offers 'Alternatives' To Lift S-400 Sanctions On Turkey
Erdogan and Biden met earlier this week on the margins of a NATO summit. Both leaders emerged upbeat from the talks, but they didn’t produce concrete results, weakening the Turkish lira and upsetting the markets.
Earlier this month, Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of state, reiterated the American offer to move the S-400 missile systems to joint Turkish-US joint custody in Incirlik Airbase, just outside Adana near the southern border with Syria, several people familiar with the issue told Middle East Eye.
However, Turkey outright rejected the offer, as it did with the previous US administration.
Turkish officials say Washington is trying to impose US control over the S-400s to make sure that they will never be activated.
“This is unacceptable. This is about Turkish sovereignty,” one official told MEE.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier this month said that Ankara could send the Russian technicians home and run the system on its own.
“We could remove the Russian element from this dispute but we cannot hand over the control,” the official added.
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