Erdoğan says new US arms sales bill 'not nice,' he will discuss it with Biden
Photo: AA
Click to read the article in Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has shared his opinion on the future of the US-Turkey relations under the presidency of Joe Biden, who will assume office next month.
"We are no strangers with Biden. We got to know each other very well in the Obama era ... He visited me at home when I was ill," he told reporters yesterday (December 9) in Ankara, before he took off for Azerbaijan.
However, he said, "International politics have taken an ugly direction in which anyone would bring up sanctions whenever they feel like it," referring to possible US sanctions against Ankara.
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday (December 8) approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which stipulates sanctions on Turkey because it purchased S-400 air defense systems from Russia.
CLICK - Defense minister says Turkey to use S-400s, open to address US concerns
"Aren't we together in NATO? Aren't we two important countries in NATO? Turkey is one of the top five countries after the US. They have also admitted that. Unfortunately, we don't find the steps they have taken about arms sales nice," said the president.
He also noted that Ankara doesn't approve the US policies in northern Syria, where it is allied with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Turkey considers a "terrorist organization."
Erdoğan said that he will talk about these issues with Biden when he assumes office.
He warned Biden that some "political amateurs" might tell him "negative things" but he believes the countries will "manage this period differently."
Kalın: S-400 purchase was a result
Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın also said that the two countries "can have a very good positive agenda" with the Biden administration
Addressing a virtual think tank event hosted by the German Marshall Fund, Kalin said Biden "knows Turkey," including its political actors and landscape.
"He and his team appreciate Turkey's geopolitical and strategic value in terms of US-Turkish relations, but also on a larger scale of global politics. We believe that we can have a very good positive agenda with the Biden administration," said Kalin.
On the S-400 issue, Kalin said Ankara turned to Russia for its air defense needs after the US repeatedly refused to sell Raytheon's Patriot Missile systems.
The acquisition of the S-400 "in our view, is a result, not a cause, of a number of problems that developed over years," Kalin said.
"It was conceived by the Congress as having close defense industry relations with Russia, but penalizing Turkey for that will be so counterproductive that it will hurt Turkish-US relations, but also it will not do any good," he added.
Washington has opposed the transaction, saying the system is incompatible with NATO systems and poses risks to the advanced F-35 stealth jet fighter.
Under pressure from lawmakers, the Trump administration removed Turkey from the F-35 fighter plane program but hasn't imposed sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which mandates economic penalties on countries that carry out major transactions with Moscow's defense industry. (VK)