The Trump administration had excluded Turkey from the manufacturing program for the F-35 aircraft, due to orders for Russian S-400 missiles from Ankara.
In addition to excluding Turkey from the F-35 program, Washington in December banned the granting of any arms export permits to SSB, the Turkish government agency in charge of military purchases.
AFP
Joe Biden’s government wants Turkey to abandon Russian S-400 missiles, thus upholding the position of the Trump administration which had excluded Ankara from the lucrative program to manufacture the stealth F-35 aircraft. “Our position has not changed,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Friday. “We call on Turkey to abandon the S-400 system.”
In response to the 2019 delivery to Turkey of the first battery of the Russian S-400 air defense system, the United States excluded Ankara from the production program of the F-35 stealth aircraft, arguing that the Russian missiles could unravel its technological secrets and were incompatible with NATO systems.
“Turkey is a longtime ally and esteemed member of NATO, but its decision to purchase S-400s is inconsistent with its commitments as an ally of the United States and NATO,” added the spokesperson during a press briefing. “Turkey has had multiple opportunities over the past ten years to buy the Patriot defense system from the United States, but it has preferred to buy the S-400, which gives Russia income, access and influence,” he said. he noted.
Limited contacts
In addition to excluding Turkey from the F-35 program, in December Washington banned the granting of any arms export permits to the SSB, the Turkish government agency in charge of military procurement, to punish Ankara for the acquisition of Russian missiles. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in January expressed the hope of reaching a compromise with the administration of Joe Biden allowing the reinstatement of Ankara in the program of the F-35 fighter plane, but contacts between the new administration America and Turkey were restricted.
If Ankara said Tuesday that the spokesman for the Turkish presidency Ibrahim Kalin and the American national security adviser Jake Sullivan had expressed during a telephone interview “the desire to establish strong, lasting and constructive relations between two countries in the period which opens ”, Joe Biden had not yet had Friday telephone exchange with Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
