Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed that Ankara had already finalised the S-400 deal and would buy the missile systems from Russia “without any question”. The US, in turn, reportedly offered to provide Turkey with a powerful air defence capabilities if it stops its purchase of the S-400 systems.
Turkey should choose between buying the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system or staying a partner in the US’s F-35 weapons programme, Republican Senator James Inhofe, the new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Bloomberg.
His remarks came after Turkey’s Anadolu news agency cited a high-ranking source in Washington as saying that the US continues to consider the S-400 air defence system a threat to its F-35 fifth generation stealth fighter platform, and may impose sanctions against Ankara.
Earlier, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar stated that the deployment of the S-400 systems to Turkey will start in October 2019. At the same time, he added that the US F-35 fighter jet program is to be continued as planned, with the next jets to be delivered in March of next year.
Last December, Ankara signed a loan agreement with Moscow envisaging deliveries of the Russian-made S-400 air defence systems to Turkey. CEO Sergey Chemezov of Russia’s state-owned defence conglomerate Rostec said at the time that the contract envisaged the delivery of four S-400 battalion-size sets worth $2.5 billion, with 55 percent of the contract sum being covered by Russian loans.