US President Joe Biden and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan could not find a solution to the dispute over purchase of Russian missile systems S-400 for Ankara, said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Earlier this Thursday (16), Erdogan announced that he had clarified Ankara’s unchanged position on the issue to Biden.
“I told Biden, don’t expect Turkey to take any further steps on the F-35 or S-400. Because we have already done our part in the F-35. We asked you about the Patriot air defense system, and you didn’t. On the contrary, you even killed those who were parked at our bases. What could we have done? he said Erdogan to Sputnik reporters.
The United States has spent years trying to get its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally not to buy a Russian-made missile system, arguing that it poses a threat to the alliance and is incompatible with NATO equipment.
Ankara’s intransigence has led Washington to exclude Turkey from the F-35 fighter program and impose sanctions on the organization coordinating Turkey’s defense sector.
At the end of 2017, Turkey and Russia signed a $ 2.5 billion (about R $ 12.5 billion) deal to supply four S-400 mobile air defense and missile defense batteries. The delivery of the system began in 2019. Since then, Turkey has said it would like to buy more S-400s.
© Sputnik / Dmitry Vinogradov
Russian S-400 missile systems at Khmeimim airbase in Syria
The Turkish President confirmed that President Biden would like to pay a visit to Turkey, and noted that in the face of the inevitable US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, Ankara is ready to take over “There are many more responsibilities.”
He added that Turkey plans to discuss in more detail the issue of cooperation in the defense industry with its US ally.
“The heads of Itamarati, the Ministry of Defense and the Defense Industry will be involved in the future negotiation process,” Erdogan said.
Turkey has actively expanded its diplomatic activities in the region since the collapse of the Soviet Union and has provided Azerbaijan with some of the advanced drones it used in its recent war with Armenian militias in the disputed region of Karabakh.
Biden said he had a “very good” meeting with Erdogan, calling it “positive and productive” and expressing confidence in making “real progress” in improving relations. Erdogan called the talks “productive and sincere” and said that “there were no problems in the US-Turkish partnership that were” insoluble. “
The Biden government has made improving relations with Turkey a priority in trying to keep it from rapprochement with Russia and China. However, the historic decision of the United States in April to recognize the “Armenian genocide” – the term Turkey refuses to use the description of the events of 1915-1917 against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire raised the tension in the country to a new level.
In late April, media affiliated with the Turkish armed forces accused the United States of carrying out a series of mass genocides that killed about 84 million people worldwide.
