NATO Chief Says Turkey Remains Important Ally Despite S-400 Deal
NATO Chief Says Turkey Remains Important Ally Despite S-400 Deal
(Bloomberg) -- The chief of NATO said Turkey would remain a key member of the alliance despite its decision to purchase the Russian S-400 missile-defense system, while acknowledging that the move created a “difficult situation.”
Turkey can still be included in NATO’s integrated air and missile defense network even if the S-400 is excluded from it, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said on Wednesday.
“Turkey is an important NATO member,” Stoltenberg said at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado. “As long as that issue’s not solved, we need to minimize the negative consequences.”
His comments highlighted the moderating message that NATO has sought to deliver in the days since Turkey, home to the alliance’s second-largest military, started taking delivery of the Russian-made S-400 missile-defense system over protests from the U.S. and others last week.
Some analysts have warned that buying the S-400 could result in Turkey leaving the alliance.
His remarks also matched the tone from the Trump administration, which is making good on its threat to expel Turkey from the F-35 advanced fighter jet program but has so far held off imposing sanctions as required by U.S. law. In a statement earlier Wednesday, the White House said the U.S. “will continue to cooperate with Turkey extensively.”
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement on Wednesday, said the “exclusion” from the F-35 program, which it labeled “unjust,” was based on an “invalid” allegation.
“This one-sided step does not comply with the spirit of the alliance and has no legal basis whatsoever,” the ministry said in the statement.
Stoltenberg called the decision to buy the S-400 “not good” and said there would be unspecified consequences for the decision, but didn’t engage on the possibility that NATO’s role in the alliance might be diminished in any way. Part of that is purely a matter of the way NATO was formed: the treaty that created the alliance after World War II doesn’t stipulate how to kick out one of its members.
He said Turkey’s membership in NATO runs “much deeper” than the F-35 program and the S-400.
“There is no provision to expel an ally from NATO,” Douglas Lute, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said in an email. “The S-400 issue is serious but will not result in Turkey’s leaving the alliance.”
Stoltenberg was also asked about the Aug. 2 deadline for Russia to come back into compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, which is set to expire on that date unless an agreement is reached with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In February, Trump announced the U.S. would suspend its obligations under the treaty unless Russia “comes back into compliance by destroying all of its violating missiles, launchers, and associated equipment.”
Russia has denied violating the treaty, but earlier this month, Putin signed a law that pulled Russia out of the Cold War-era pact.
“There are no indications Russia is moving back into compliance,” Stoltenberg said. “We are also preparing for a world without the treaty and more Russian missiles.”
--With assistance from Selcan Hacaoglu.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Aspen, Colorado at nwadhams@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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