Turkey brushes off attempts to influence its foreign policy amid S-400 row with US
Trend:
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has stated that although Turkey is a part of NATO, it still remains a sovereign state capable of making independent decisions, including on matters such as buying S-400 air defence systems from Russia. He added that in light of this, Ankara can't accept demands from the US government to drop the deal, Trendreports citing Sputnik.
"Yes, we are members of many international organisations. Our membership in international organisations or the development of bilateral relations with [certain] countries does not give them the right to question our foreign policy. Today we cannot accept the US demands regarding the S-400 [systems]", he said.
He further pointed out that if the US is worried about possible drawbacks of Turkey using the Russian systems, then Washington has the opportunity to discuss its concerns in a working group that was proposed by Ankara a long time ago.
Earlier in the day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shared that he had discussed the S-400 contract with his Russian counterpart and said that the delivery of the systems could begin as early as the first half of July, noting that the purchase is a done deal.