“I welcome and encourage the discussions about Turkey’s possible acquisition of a US Patriot missile system,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu in an interview published on Sunday. “Decisions about military procurement are for nations to make,” but “interoperability of our armed forces is fundamental to NATO for the conduct of our operations and missions,” he said.
Why Russian missiles (again) divide Turkey and US
Stoltenberg spoke in Brussels before setting off for a two-day visit to Turkey, where he is expected to urge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to back off from a planned purchase of S-400 missiles from Russia. That plan is a key source of tension with the US, which has threatened to sanction Turkey and expel it from its F-35 fifth-generation fighter jet programme.
Washington says the S-400s, if deployed in Turkey, could collect critical information on the stealth capabilities of the F-35, which Turkish companies have helped to develop. As a way out, the US has offered its Patriot systems, and negotiations are proceeding in fits and starts.
July delivery
But the threat of removing Turkey from a costly fighter jet programme or imposing sanctions appear to have done little to persuade Ankara to abandon the S-400s. Turkey is set to take delivery of the Russian equipment by July and has proposed the US and the NATO study how to avoid the risk of compromising sensitive information on the F-35s. It’s also argued that it can still buy Patriot missiles from the US if Washington can give guarantees on their delivery as well as joint production.
Stoltenberg called attention to areas of cooperation by pointing out that the alliance has been reinforcing Turkey’s air defenses since 2013. It’s deployed Spain’s Patriot batteries at Incirlik Air Base and Italian SAMP/T systems close to an early-warning radar at Kurecik, a critical component of NATO’s ballistic-missile defense.
“The mission is important and NATO allies are committed to it,” Stoltenberg said, stressing that the alliance has also enhanced patrols by AWACS surveillance planes over Turkish territory.
However, Turkey says those measures are inadequate to protect its air space.
Should Turkey go ahead and purchase the Russian system, the severity of sanctions it might face will depend largely on President Donald Trump, who Ankara says is mulling a visit to Turkey around the time the S-400s are scheduled to arrive.
Erdogan is hopeful his American counterpart, with whom he enjoys good relations, will help deflect stinging sanctions. Turkish officials including his son-in-law, Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, remain engaged in back-door diplomacy with the White House.
“Despite growing divergences between Turkey and its Western allies, neither side can afford for political, economic, and security relations to deteriorate beyond a certain point,” Marc Pierini, a former French diplomat and European Union ambassador to Turkey, said on Twitter.