*ANKARA: Turkey received the first batch of Russia’s S-400 missile defencesystem on Friday, the defence ministry said, despite repeated warnings fromits NATO ally United States against the purchase.*

“The delivery of the first shipment of parts of the S-400 long rangeregional air missile defence system began as of July 12, 2019 to Murted airbase in Ankara,” the ministry said in a statement.

The delivery, which was made by plane, is likely to escalate tensions withthe US after Washington warned this week that there would be “real andnegative” consequences if Ankara bought the Russian defence system.

The US State Department has said that Turkish officials are fully aware ofthe Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, a law passed byCongress in 2017 that mandates sanctions for any “significant” purchases ofweapons from Russia.

Washington has threatened to remove Turkey from its F-35 fighter jetprogramme, giving Ankara until July 31 to cancel the S-400 purchase or haveits pilots kicked off the training course and expelled from the US.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after meeting UScounterpart Donald Trump last month that he was confident Ankara would notface sanctions for buying the Russian missile system.

Erdogan told Trump during their meeting on the margins of the G-20 meetingin Japan that former president Barack Obama did not allow Ankara to buyPatriot missiles — an equivalent of the S-400s.

Trump sounded convinced and said: “You can’t do business that way. It’s notgood.”

The Turkish air force changed the name of the base in Ankara from Akinci toMurted after it was the centre of a 2016 failed coup attempt. -APP/AFP