Turkey and U.S. Defense Chiefs May Talk Missiles at NATO Summit
Turkey and U.S. Defense Chiefs May Talk Missiles at NATO Summit
(Bloomberg) -- The Turkish and U.S. defense chiefs may discuss Ankara’s planned purchase of a Russian missile system during a meeting of NATO defense ministers this month, according to a Turkish security official.
The NATO meeting is scheduled for June 26-27 in Brussels. The U.S. has warned of sanctions should Turkey move ahead with the acquisition.
Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar in a letter last week that the U.S. will end Turkey’s participation in the F-35 jet program by July 31 if the NATO ally doesn’t scrap the deal to buy the S-400 system, which the U.S. is concerned would be capable of collecting intelligence on the warplane’s stealth capabilities. In his letter, Shanahan mentioned an upcoming meeting with Akar in June in Brussels.
Turkey has taken issue with the U.S. contention that the S-400 would pose a threat to the F-35s. President Donald Trump agreed with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan to form a joint study group on the S-400, according to officials from both nations familiar with the decision.
“We are unable to establish a link between Turkey’s partnership in F-35 program and its purchase of the S-400,” said Ismail Demir, the head of the main Turkish state body dealing with arms procurement and production. The U.S. has yet to act on forming a joint technical committee, Demir added.
The U.S. has offered to sell American Patriot missiles to Turkey instead, and Demir said Ankara is waiting to hear back from Washington on its response to the terms.
No Participation
Shanahan wrote in his letter that the U.S. will not plan for Turkish participation in the June 12 F-35 Chief Executive Officer Roundtable, and that planned updates to the fighter program’s governing documents will continue without Turkish input.
Turkey may continue participating in the F-35 program by shutting down procurement of the S-400 system, said Ellen M. Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, during a June 7 press conference at the Pentagon. “We have been very consistent all along that we are not going to discuss technical mitigations to the S-400,” Lord said.
“If the United States and Turkey cannot reach a mutually agreeable resolution to this issue by July 31, all Turkish F-35 students and instructor pilots currently in the United States will be required to depart the country,” Lord said.
Andrew Winternitz, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO, urged Turkey “to stop the training in Russia,” Winternitz said at the Pentagon briefing. “That would be a great signal to us.”
Russian Experts
A team of Russian experts will visit Turkey on June 28-29, right after the planned meeting between Akar and Shanahan, Turkey’s Haberturk newspaper reported Monday, without saying where it obtained the information. The delegation will be in Turkey for preparations ahead of the missiles’ planned delivery, which Russia wants to start by July 15, the newspaper said.
If confirmed, the visit would also overlap with a planned summit of G20 group of nations in Japan, where Erdogan and Trump are expected to meet to discuss Ankara’s purchase of the Russian air defense system.
To contact the reporters on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net;Firat Kozok in Ankara at fkozok@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Paul Abelsky
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