The U.S. proposal asking Turkey to annul its deal with Russia for the procurement of the S-400 missiles is "not right," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Thursday.
“It is out of question to completely leave Russian S-400 to buy U.S. Patriots. We can buy Patriots too. However, we will buy S-400 as well,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in his flight en route to Ankara from Washington.
“Turkey can buy U.S. Patriots, but we consider offers to buy just Patriots and completely put Russian S-400s aside as an interference in our sovereignty rights,” Erdogan added.
Turkey's acquisition of the advanced Russian air-defense system prompted the Trump administration to remove Turkey from the F-35 fifth-generation joint strike fighter program in July.
The U.S. maintains that the system could be used by Russia to covertly obtain classified details on the jet and is incompatible with NATO systems.
Turkey, however, counters that the S-400 would not be integrated into NATO systems and would not pose a threat to the alliance.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Erdogan to walk away from the purchase of the S-400 systems, the parts of which began arriving in Turkey in July.
Turkey has so far avoided U.S. sanctions stemming from the purchase. But the United States has banned sales of F-35 fighter jets to Ankara and removed it from a multinational program to produce the warplane.
Erdogan told reporters after his meeting with Trump that he saw a much more positive approach to the F-35 issue from Trump.
