Turkey on Friday received the first batch of Russian S-400 missile systems, sparking NATO “concern” and risking deepening tensions with the US, which has repeatedly warned against the purchase.
The delivery to an air base in the Turkish capital, Ankara, came after Washington warned this week that there would be “real and negative” consequences if Turkey bought the defense system.
NATO, which counts Turkey as one of its members, is “concerned about the potential consequences” of the purchase, an official told reporters.
Photo: AFP / Turkish Defense Ministry
The alliance has repeatedly warned Turkey that the Russian system is incompatible with other NATO weapons systems, not least the F-35, a new-generation multi-role stealth fighter jet.
The US fears that if Ankara integrates the S-400 into its defenses, there is a risk that sensitive data about its F-35 could leak back to Russia and it has threatened to expel Turkey from its fighter jet program.
However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to back down and said he is confident that Turkey will not face US sanctions after meeting US President Donald Trump on the margins of the G20 summit in Japan last month.
On Friday, the Turkish Ministry of Defense issued a statement confirming “the delivery of the first shipment of parts of the S-400 long-range regional air missile defense system” had begun.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that “everything is happening in strict accordance with the agreements and signed contracts, all obligations are being carried out.”
While the Trump administration stayed quiet, members of the US Congress across party lines called for the US to terminate Turkey’s participation in the F-35 program and to slap sanctions on Turks involved in the deal with Russia.
“President Erdogan was given a very clear choice. Unfortunately, he has clearly made the wrong one,” US representatives Eliot Engel and Michael McFaul said.
“That a NATO ally would choose to side with Russia and [Russian President] Vladimir Putin over the alliance and closer cooperation with the United States is hard to fathom,” they said in a joint statement.
The US Department of State has said that Turkish officials are fully aware of legislation — the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act — which mandates sanctions for any “significant” purchases of weapons from Russia.
Washington has given Ankara until July 31 to cancel the S-400 purchase or have its pilots kicked off its F-35 training course and expelled from the US.
Trump’s pick for Pentagon chief, Mark Esper, confronted Turkish Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar about the deal on the sidelines of a NATO meeting last month.
Akar told Esper in a phone call on Friday that Turkey was under “serious threat” and its acquisition of S-400s was “not a choice, but an obligation,” the Turkish defence ministry said in a statement.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was