Ankara, June 14: Turkish foreign minister Melvut Cavusoglu has on Friday said the nation will opt to retaliate if the United States attempts to impose US sanctions on Turkey over its purchase deal of S-400 air defence missile system with Russia.
Tensions between the US and Turkey have reached a much higher pitch in recent times over Turkey’s purchase deal with Russia of S-400 systems, which Washington has claimed the deal would jeopardize its NATO alliance role in the training programme of F-35 fighter jets, potentially prompting further sanctions.
“One country cannot give instructions to another on how to act. The US should abandon this behaviour. Everyone is concerned about this. How far can it go? If the US takes steps against us, then we will be forced to take reciprocal steps”, he said in an interview with the channel NTV.
Earlier, the foreign minister has stated “nobody” was in a position to issue any ultimatums to Turkey regarding its policy, according to Sputnik news reports.
Cavusoglu’s remarks come after Ibrahim Kalin, the Turkish presidential spokesperson, slammed a US letter by acting defence chief Patrick Shanahan to Ankara’s defence minister which reportedly contained threats to remove Turkey from the F-35 fighter jets training programme in retaliation to Turkey-Russia deal of S-400s.
In turn, Turkey has stressed the S-400s were not linked to the NATO security, the F-35 or the US in any way, and Washington’s decision to acquire all of them “does not target a third country”.