ANKARA — A Turkish Defense Ministry official on Thursday said neither Turkey nor the United States has changed its position on Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems.
The remarks came in response to a journalist’s question about Greek media reporting that Turkey and the United States were close to a compromise for Ankara to hand control of the S-400s to Washington in return for its readmission to the new generation F-35 stealth fighter jet program.
“News reports aimed at creating cynical perceptions by third countries shouldn’t be given credence,” the official told reporters. “As of now, there has been no shift in either country’s stance regarding the S-400 and F-35 issues.”
NATO member Turkey was ousted from the F-35 program in 2020 for its purchase of Russian missile defense system, under the conditions of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (2017), which Congress overwhelmingly passed to deter significant defense transactions with Russia. Turkey had taken delivery of the Russian S-400s in 2019.
Turkey’s expulsion further deteriorated already frayed relations between the two NATO allies over a series of differences. That same year, 2020, Turkey tabled its bid to buy 40 new F-16 Block 70 fighter jets from the United States.
The State Department gave a green light to sale of F-16s to Turkey in January this year, after the Turkish parliament’s approval of Sweden’s NATO membership, paving the way for the alliance’s Nordic expansion along with Finland. The two countries had formally applied to join the bloc right in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the issue became a key foreign policy focus of the Biden administration. The US State Department announced in June that Turkey had signed documents on the terms of the purchase.
Ankara is reportedly seeking price modifications to the $23 billion military package. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he had raised the issue during his meeting with President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the NATO leaders’ summit in July and that Biden had assured him of a resolution “in three to four weeks.” It remains unclear whether the issue has since been addressed.
Erdogan’s itinerary for the UN General Assembly gathering this week in New York did not include a meeting with Biden, and the Turkish leader returned home without attending a dinner Biden hosted for foreign leaders.
Prior to traveling to New York, Erdogan had reportedly sought a meeting with the Democratic presidential candidate and current vice president, Kamala Harris, but to no avail.
