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Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said yesterday that the US had proposed Turkey to send the S-400 missile defense system it bought from Russia to Ukraine, but Ankara rejected this offer.
"The US asked us to send the S-400s to Ukraine, and we said no," he said, he said, explaining that these proposals were unacceptable as they sought to infringe on Turkey's sovereignty.
The US had also suggested that Turkey give control of the system to the US or another country to avoid being excluded from the F-35 fighter jet program, which Turkey purchased before being removed. However, Turkey refused these proposals as well, according to Çavuşoğlu.
The government insists that it bought the S-400s as a matter of national security and that no other country has the right to interfere with this decision.
The country is now developing its own national combat aircraft and wants to improve ties with the US, including purchasing F-16 jets and modernization kits, the FM further said. Turkey requested 40 F-16s and modernization kits for 79 warplanes from the US in October 2021, but the deal has not yet progressed as quickly as Ankara hoped.
The S-400 row between Turkey and the USTurkey signed the S-400 agreement with Russia in April 2017 and received the first batch of equipment in July 2019, after which the US announced Turkey's suspension from the F-35 program. The US announced in April 2019 that it had suspended the delivery of equipment associated with the F-35 project to Turkey. At the end of July 2019, Turkey's pilots trained for the F-25 program returned to the country. In late 2019, then US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Turkey must choose between the F-35s and the S-400s. As part of its 2020 defense budget, the US decided to buy the six planes owned by Turkey. The US found new supplies for the 1,005 different parts that were produced by Turkey-based companies. Turkey confirmed in October 2020 that it tested the S-400 systems but hasn't activated them yet. In December, the US announced sanctions on Turkey's arms purchasing agency. |
(VK)
