Turkey: Russian air defense system no NATO threat

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Thursday said that the Russian S-400 air defense system posed no threat to NATO and that a working group should be established to analyze the matter.

“The claim is that the S400 and F-35s are incompatible. That’s the claim. Here is our proposal, let’s have a working group and NATO can chair this and let’s let experts make the assessment and come back to us,” Çavuşoğlu said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Reuters reported.

“It does not pose any threats to the NATO system or to NATO allies,” he added during the panel discussion.

Turkey took delivery of the air defense system last summer despite warnings from U.S. officials that the system could pose a threat to the U.S.-made fighter jet. The U.S. Defense Department kicked Turkey out of the F-35 program in response to the purchase, with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) saying the nation “thumbed their nose at us” and that “if we just look the other way on this … we will be viewed as weak.”

The committee advanced a bill imposing sanctions on Turkey for the purchase, over President Trump’s objections, in December in an 18-4 vote.