Ankara [Turkey], May 8: Turkish Foreign Minister MevlutCavusoglu said that Washington had asked Ankara to send Kyiv an S-400 missile defense system, but Ankara had rejected the proposal.
"The US asked us to send the S-400 to Ukraine, and we refused," said Foreign Minister Cavusoglu, explaining that the proposals were unacceptable because they violated Turkey's sovereignty , according to Anadolu News Agency.
Turkish officials have repeatedly said that Ankara's purchase of the S-400 from Russia is a matter of national security and that no other country has the right to interfere in this.
Before that, in 2017, when prolonged efforts to buy air defense systems from the US failed, Turkey signed a contract with Russia to buy the S-400 system.
US officials expressed opposition to Türkiye's deployment of the S-400, arguing that the system would be incompatible with NATO systems.
However, Turkey insists that the S-400 will not be integrated into NATO systems and pose no threat to the alliance or its weapons. Ankara has repeatedly proposed setting up a committee to clarify this issue.
In July 2019, the US Department of Defense announced that Turkey was excluded from the F-35 stealth fighter development program after Ankara began receiving S-400 from Russia.
When asked about returning to the F-35 program, Foreign Minister Cavusoglu replied that Ankara does not want to return to that program but wants to receive back from Washington the money it paid for the F-35s before being removed from the program. program, while Turkey has not yet delivered any.
Cavusoglu explained that Ankara is currently "producing its own national fighter", adding that Turkey also wants to improve relations with the US and the necessary mechanisms have been established for this purpose. .
However, Turkey also wants to buy F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits from the US, but this request is not resolved by Washington as quickly as Ankara would like, according to Cavusoglu.
Ankara requested F-16 aircraft and modernization kits from the US in October 2021. The $6 billion deal will include 40 F-16s and modernization kits for the 79 fighters that the Turkish Air Force currently has in stock, according to Reuters.
Source: ThanhNien Newspaper
