Blinken cautions Turkey against future S-400 purchases
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that President Joe Biden's recent recognition of the Armenian genocide should not have come as a surprise.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Turkey shouldn’t make any additional purchases of Russian weaponry, warning that doing so could provoke further US sanctions.
"It's also very important going forward that Turkey, and for that matter all US allies and partners, avoid future purchases of Russian weaponry, including additional S-400s," Blinken said during a virtual briefing at Washington's Foreign Press Center.
Turkey acquired the multimillion dollar S-400 missile defense system from Russia in 2019, which the United States says poses a threat to NATO’s air defense capabilities and may compromise the security of its own F-35 stealth fighter jets.
The Donald Trump administration booted Turkey from the F-35 program and in December 2020 imposed limited sanctions on Turkey’s defense industry under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
