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Russian missile delivery to Turkey strains ally's relations with US Russian missile delivery to Turkey strains ally's relations with US
(about 2 hours later)
Russia began the delivery of an advanced missile defence system to Turkey it has been reported, a move likely to trigger US sanctions against a Nato ally and drive a wedge into the heart of the military alliance. The first batch of a Russian S-400 missile defence system has arrived in Turkey, a development likely to anger the US and put the struggling Turkish economy at risk of new sanctions.
According to the Turkish defence ministry, the first parts of the S-400 air defence system were flown to a military air base near Ankara, sealing a deal with Russia that Washington had laboured for months to prevent. Three planes carrying equipment for the reported £1.6bn system arrived in Ankara from Russia on Friday, the Turkish defence ministry said.
The US says the Russian military hardware is not compatible with Nato systems and that the acquisition may lead to Ankara’s expulsion from an F-35 fighter jet programme. The delivery of parts will continue for several days at the Mürted Air Base and authorities will decide “how it will be used” once the system is made operational, Turkey’s defence industry authority said in a statement. It is not yet known where the S-400 will be deployed.
Investors in Turkey have been unsettled by the deal. The Turkish lira weakened to 5.717 against the dollar from 5.683 before the ministry announced the arrival of the S-400 consignment to the Mürted Air Base. Turkey, a member of Nato, says it was forced to take the unprecedented step of buying the sophisticated Russian equipment in 2017 after the US refused to supply the alternative Patriot missile defence system.
At least two Russian air force An-124 cargo planes flew to Turkey on Friday morning, data from plane tracking website Flightradar24 revealed. The US has since warned that Ankara cannot have both the S-400 and US F-35 fighter jets, alternatively offering the Patriot system after all and threatening that the S-400 purchase will trigger US economic sanctions.
Russia’s federal service for military and technical cooperation confirmed it had started delivering the S-400 systems and deliveries would continue on schedule. But Turkey, which is establishing closer ties with Russia, has refused to bow to pressure from Washington, calling it a matter of national sovereignty.
Turkey says the system is a strategic defence requirement, particularly to secure its southern borders with Syria and Iraq. It says that when it made the deal with Russia for the S-400s, neither the US nor Europe presented a viable alternative. “We’ve always said regarding the S400s that it’s an agreement that has been finalised and the process continues to progress,” the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavusoğlu, told reporters. “There’s no problem and the process will continue in a healthy way going forward.”
After meeting President Donald Trump at a G20 summit last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the US did not plan to impose sanctions on Ankara for buying the S-400s. Although the US president, Donald Trump, expressed sympathy for the Turkish decision during a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Japan last month, Washington has repeatedly said the S-400 purchase is incompatible with Nato systems.
Nato said on Friday it was “concerned” by Turkey’s acquisition of the S-400 missile defence system.
“Interoperability of our armed forces is fundamental to Nato for the conduct of our operations and missions,” an official in Brussels told AFP.
The US fears that if Turkey integrates the S-400 into its defences, sensitive data about the F-35, a new generation multi-role stealth fighter, could be accessed by Moscow.
Ankara has purchased 100 F-35s, but Washington has already stopped training Turkish pilots and given Turkey until the end of July to get its personnel out of the US.
Despite the stalled F-35 programme and the memory of last year’s US sanctions over the detention of an American pastor that sent the Turkish lira tumbling, Erdoğan has remained confident that Turkey will avoid US sanctions.
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On the other hand, even though Trump said Turkey had not been treated fairly, but he did not rule out sanctions. Last week US officials said the administration still planned to impose sanctions on Turkey.
Under legislation known as Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which targets purchases of military equipment from Russia, Trump should select five of 12 possible measures.
These range from banning visas and denying access to the US-based Export-Import Bank, to the harsher options of blocking transactions with the US financial system and denying export licences.
Washington says the S-400s could compromise its Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jets, an aircraft Turkey is helping to build and planning to buy. Turkey could also face expulsion from the F-35 programme under the sanctions.
Erdoğan has dismissed that possibility, but Washington has already started the process of removing Turkey from the programme, halting aircraft training of Turkish pilots in the US.
Investors in Turkey have been concerned about the impact of potential US sanctions on an economy that fell into recession after a currency crisis last year.
The S-400 acquisition is one of several issues that have frayed ties between the two allies, including a dispute over strategy in Syria east of the Euphrates River, where the US is allied with Kurdish forces that Turkey views as foes.
The detention of US consular staff in Turkey has also strained relations, along with disagreements over Iran, Venezuela and Middle East policy. Turkey has long demanded Washington hand over a Muslim cleric whom Ankara holds responsible for an attempted coup in 2016.
TurkeyTurkey
RussiaRussia
Recep Tayyip ErdoğanRecep Tayyip Erdoğan
EuropeEurope
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