(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned Turkey that its “reckless” move to purchase a Russian missile-defense system risked diminishing the nation’s role within NATO.
“Turkey must choose: Does it want to remain a critical partner in the most successful military alliance in history of the world?” Pence said at a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the multilateral partnership in Washington on Wednesday. “Or does it want to risk the security of that partnership by making reckless decisions that undermine our alliance?”
In a show of what’s at stake, Pence said the U.S. had told Turkey it was suspending shipments of all F-35 Joint Strike Fighter related equipment and material, and that Ankara could be expelled from the jet program if it completes the deal with Moscow for the $2.5 billion S-400 missile system.
Turkey’s scheduled to start receiving S-400 parts mid-June, and delivery will be completed by July, a Turkish official familiar with the matter said Thursday on condition of anonymity to disclose confidential security matters.
Pence’s stern warning drew a swift rebuke from Turkey. Vice President Fuat Oktay said the U.S. must choose whether it wants to “remain Turkey’s ally or risk our friendship by joining forces with terrorists.” That was a reference to U.S. support for a Kurdish militia in Syria, which Ankara says is allied with separatist militants in the Turkish southeast.
The exchange of barbs escalated a crisis that’s damaging the two countries’ more than half-century-old military cooperation and could possibly trigger new U.S. economic sanctions. Penalties last year over a detained American pastor helped fuel a collapse in the lira and pushed the economy into recession.
“The fact that Turkey is moving ahead with these plans even after the United States has made available the Patriot air defense system is deeply troubling,” Pence said.
Turkey and the U.S. are attempting to agree on guidelines for a so-called “safe zone” in northeast Syria, in a bid to appease Ankara’s concerns over the presence of the Kurdish YPG militia.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who met his Turkish counterpart in Washington, threw his support behind negotiations, while “warning of the potentially devastating consequences of unilateral Turkish military action in the region,” according to a State Department statement of the diplomats’ meeting.
Turkey said that didn’t accurately reflect the diplomats’ conversation. The readout was “apparently” prepared before the meeting and cites issues that never came up, Hami Aksoy, a foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement.
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