MOSCOW – The United States has been pressing Turkey, its NATO ally, toreject a plan to purchase Russia’s cutting-edge S-400 missile systems,which Turkey estimates to be three times cheaper than a $3.5 billion orderfor US anti-aircraft weapons.
Turkey has rejected the offer by the United States on the sale of USlong-range surface-to-air Patriot missile systems until the end of 2019providing that Ankara refuses to purchase Russia’s S-400 air defencesystem, Bloomberg reported citing official Turkish sources.
The statement comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on 16February that Ankara was not satisfied with the United States’ reluctanceto give Turkey a loan needed to buy Patriot air defence systems or organisejoint production of the weapon.
Earlier, Ismail Demir, head of the main state body dealing with armsprocurement and production told NTV television that “it is not possiblefor us to accept the content and details of the proposal as it is at themoment. The conditions must be discussed, there are a series of issues thatmust be clarified and a compromise must be reached”.
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Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the Anadolu news agency on 1March that the United States had offered to sell the Patriots and that “thedelegations are negotiating”.
The United States has repeatedly threatened to impose sanctions on Turkeyif it purchases missile systems from Russia. – Sputnik
