Russia prepares S-400 missiles for NATO ally Turkey, despite threat of US sanctions

On Friday, the US State Department reinforced warnings of" very real and negative consequences " for Turkey.

Moscow:
Russia will begin to hand over its S-400 air defense system to NATO member Turkey in the coming days, a Kremlin spokesman said on Friday as part of an agreement that could trigger sanctions and test the Western military alliance's ties.

But the scope of Washington's possible response remains overshadowed by seemingly contradictory messages.

President Donald Trump publicly expressed sympathy for the position of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system. However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned against tough measures that would include cancelling F-35 fighter aircraft sales to Turkey unless the contract with Russia was broken.

On Friday, the State Department reinforced warnings of" very real and negative consequences " for Turkey.

For the broader NATO alliance, the Turkish agreement is at the heart of military coordination. NATO fears that the S-400 is incompatible with Turkey's possession of American-made F-35s and could give Russia access to the secrets of its stealth technology.

For more than a year, the US has asked Erdogan not to adopt a sophisticated Russian system, which would impose binding US sanctions on Turkey under a 2017 law on cooperation with "adversaries".

The US measures, if implemented, would cause an extraordinary violation of US-Turkish relations and would almost certainly complicate the ongoing negotiations between the two countries on other issues, including military strategy in Syria.

The latest crisis comes less than a year after another dispute between the United States and Turkey: the imprisonment of American pastor Andrew Brunson led both countries to impose sanctions and hinder the Turkish economy. Brunson was arrested in 2017, after a failed coup against Erdogan. He was released in October and sent back to the United States.

Erdogan "has made a decision and we will bear the consequences," said Aaron Stein, director of the Middle East Program at the Philadelphia Foreign Policy Research Institute. "If you thought Brunson was bad, it's a lot worse."

Erdogan said that his agreement with Russia was part of Turkey's sovereign right to defend itself and denied that the purchase threatened NATO.

"Turkey also adds value and strength to NATO and expands its vision and Scope," said Friday at the graduation ceremony at the Istanbul National Defense University, according to his office.

"As we defend the rights of our country and our friends on the international scene, we see the embargoes we face in the defense industry on the rise," said Erdogan.

While the US authorities presented the sanctions against Turkey as a matter of certainty, Trump refrained from taking a hard line with Erdogan on the S-400 at last month's group of 20 summit talks in Japan.

Trump, speaking to journalists at the summit, said Turkey had helped create jobs in the United States by paying a "huge sum" on the F-35 fighters manufactured by Lockheed Martin. He said that Erdogan had initially sought to buy Patriot missiles from the Obama administration, but that he had been "treated very unfairly".

"It's a waste. It's a waste, " Trump said. "And honestly, it's not really Erdogan's fault."

In fact, the Trump and Obama administrations had tried to sell the Patriot systems to the Erdogan government, but in both cases, Turkey was seeking better terms and negotiations were blocked.

Turkey found it much easier to reach an agreement with Russia.

The Erdogan government has abandoned "Turkey's traditional heavy demands for technology transfer" to acquire the know-how to build its own missile systems, Stein said.

"Russia then went out of its way to ensure that its delivery was not delayed, offering to speed up delivery," he added.

At the G-20 summit, Trump did not directly answer the question of whether the United States would impose sanctions on Turkey.

Erdogan, however, said after his talks with Trump that Turkey would be spared American sanctions.

Washington has threatened to impose sanctions under the U.S. adversary anti-terrorism act by law, which provides for U.S. sanctions against anyone entering into a "significant" deal with the Russian defense sector.

"The United States has always made it clear that Turkey would suffer very real and negative consequences if it proceeded to acquire the S-400, including by suspending procurement and industrial participation in the F-35 program and exposing the country to sanctions," one state said. Department spokesman.

Last month, the Pentagon, in a show of determination, announced that it would stop training Turkish pilots to fly the F-35 fighter aircraft.

"The purchase by Turkey of the Russian S-400 missile and air defence system remains incompatible with the F-35 program. Turkey will not be allowed to have both systems," said Pentagon spokesman lieutenant-colonel Mike Andrews in a statement. statement Friday.

"The ministry hopes that Turkey will change course on the S-400. None of the planning steps we are taking to cancel Turkey's participation in the F-35 program is irreversible," added Andrews. "This deliberate and measured approach, designed to allow our Turkish counterparts to adapt to this transition, will be greatly accelerated if Turkey accepts delivery of the S-400."

The language of CAATSA does not indicate whether sanctions would be triggered when Turkey takes over the Russian system or after the deployment of the S-400, which is probably still several months away. The White House weighs several packages of different sanctions, of varying severity. Trump could also suspend sanctions up to 180 days after their implementation.

But according to CAATSA's" spirit and letter", Turkey should not benefit from such a suspension, which is mainly aimed at countries that abandon the old Russian systems, Stein said.

"Turkey is going in the opposite direction," he said. "It is essentially an American equipment buyer who divests himself of the United States in favor of Russia."

Asked by a journalist during a conference call on the delivery of the system by Russia on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said,"I can confirm on behalf of the Kremlin that the S-400 agreement is going as planned."

The private Turkish broadcaster Haberturk said that the first shipment of the S-400 would be loaded into cargo planes on Sunday and would arrive in Turkey next week.

India also wants to buy S-400s from Russia and has defied the threat of US sanctions by finalizing an agreement to buy five S-400 batteries for $ 5.4 billion. Russia supplies many weapons systems to India.

India had requested derogations from United States sanctions, which made it difficult for the administration to develop trade and diplomatic relations with New Delhi. US officials said they" urged "India not to buy the Russian missile system and" encouraged " it to find alternatives so as not to trigger sanctions.

But when Pompeo visited New Delhi last month, India showed little sign of a setback. Asked about the purchase of the S-400 during a press conference with Pompeo, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar replied that India would act in its national interest and noted that its relations with other countries "have a history".

Mr. Pompeo stated that both countries were friends and partners and committed to "finding a way to overcome" differences.