Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he is looking to a compliant U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to right a “serious wrong” and allow Ankara to purchase F-35 fighter jets to work alongside its new Russian air defense systems despite Washington’s previous repeated objections.
NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) will be led by Turkey in 2021, the military bloc said on Wednesday. The news came on the same day Turkey confirmed it will snub NATO-ally U.S. and pursue major arms deals with Russia.
Turkey on Tuesday confirmed it would not withdraw from a deal with Russia to buy S-400 missile defense systems despite pressure from the United States to reconsider.
Turkey is prepared to look “elsewhere” if the U.S. doesn’t deliver the F-35 fighter jets it ordered, the country’s foreign minister announced Tuesday.
The United States suspended the delivery of F-35 warplane-related equipment to fellow NATO member Turkey until Ankara abandons its scheduled purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system, the Pentagon revealed this week.
The United States should refuse to sell its high-tech F-35 warplane and other weapons systems to NATO ally Turkey if Ankara moves forward with the purchase of the S-400 missile system from Russia, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the head of U.S. European Command (EUCOM), suggested this week.
