Earlier, the Pentagon grounded Turkish pilots training aboard the F-35 and threatened to block deliveries of the advanced fighter jet to Turkey, while Congress proposed slapping sanctions on Ankara over its purchase of a Russian-made air defence system.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said that ‘nobody’ is in a position to issue Turkey ultimatums regarding its policy when asked to comment on US Acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan’s recent letter to Ankara threatening to block F-35 deliveries over Turkey’s S-400 purchase.
Turkey is a major partner in the F-35 development programme, having spent over a billion dollars on research and development, producing several key components, and seeking to buy at least 100 of the fighter jets for its air force. However, the country’s 2017 deal with Moscow on the delivery of the advanced Russian air defence system has jeopardised Ankara’s status in the fighter programme. In addition, lawmakers in the US House of Representatives recently passed a resolution calling on Washington to introduce sanctions against Turkey through the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, a 2017 law enabling the US to impose economic restrictions on any state that acquires military equipment from Russia.