Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar asked US lawmakers today to abandon legislation that would sanction Ankara over its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system that the House passed last week.

“We hope Congress will also act in a way that will strengthen our strategic partnership instead of resorting to the threat of sanctions as a policy toward an ally,” Akar said in a video posted by the Turkish Defense Ministry on Twitter.

Why it matters:  The annual defense authorization bill, which the House passed 295-125 last week, includes a bipartisan provision introduced by Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., to slap sanctions on Turkey over the S-400s. The legislation reiterates that Turkey’s multibillion-dollar S-400 purchase qualifies as a “significant transaction” under the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which mandates penalties for any country that engages in a “significant transaction” with the Russian defense sector. The Kinzinger amendment also requires the president to sanction Ankara within a month after the defense bill becomes law.

The Donald Trump administration has refused to place legally mandated sanctions on Turkey over the S-400 missiles despite pressure to do so from some of the president’s closest Republican allies in Congress. However, Kinzinger’s legislation also provides Turkey with an off-ramp by authorizing the president to remove the CAATSA sanctions if Ankara gets rid of the S-400 system.