US Vice President Mike Pence warned Turkey against going ahead with its planned purchase of the Russian-made S-400 missile system, hours after the Turkish Foreign Minister said the acquisition was “a done deal”.
“We’ve also made it clear that we’ll not stand idly bywhile NATO allies purchase weapons from our adversaries, weapons that threatenthe very cohesion of this alliance,” CNN quoted Pence as saying onWednesday while addressing the “NATO Engages” summit here.
“Turkey’s purchase of a $2.5 billion S-400anti-aircraft missile system from Russia poses great danger to NATO and to thestrength of this alliance,” he said, adding that Turkey could faceconsequences for its action.
“Turkey must choose. Does it want to remain a criticalpartner of the most successful military alliance in the history of the world?Or does it want to risk the security of that partnership by making recklessdecisions that undermine our alliance?”
But speaking at the same event just hours earlier, TurkishForeign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called Ankara’s acquisition of the Russiansystem “a done deal”.
“S-400 deal is a done deal and we will not step backfrom this,” he said.
Cavusoglu added that US President Donald Trump had”promised that he will do his best to resolve this issue”, warningthat if the F-35 transfer is blocked it “it will have a definitely verynegative impact on our bilateral relations which we do not prefer”.
US officials have long warned Turkey that it would not beallowed to acquire the F-35 stealth jet if it goes ahead with the missilesystem purchase.
The US believes that the Russian-system is incompatible withthe F-35 jet, saying that Moscow could use it to gather intelligence on theaircraft.
On Monday, the Pentagon announced it would halt all F-35equipment transfers to Turkey unless Ankara irrevocably abandoned plans toacquire the S-400 system.
In response to Pence’s statement, his Turkish counterpartFuat Oktay issued an ultimatum of his own, demanding the US end its support forKurdish groups in Syria who have fought the Islamic State (IS) terror group,CNN reported.
“The United States must choose. Does it want to remainTurkey’s ally or risk our friendship by joining forces with terrorists toundermine its NATO ally’s defence against its enemies?” Oktay said in atweet on Wednesday.
Turkey sees Kurdish groups in Syria as linked to the Kurdishseparatist group PKK, which the US and the European Union consider to be aterrorist group.
However, US and Syrian Kurdish officials have denied suchlinks.