U.S. VP Pence warns Turkey against buying Russian air defenses: "Turkey must choose"

U.S. VP Pence warns Turkey against buying Russian air defenses: "Turkey must choose"
# 03 April 2019 22:45 (UTC +04:00)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned Turkey on Wednesday against buying a Russian S-400 anti-missile system, keeping up the pressure on its NATO ally to abandon the purchase that Washington considers a threat to U.S. military equipment, ONA reports citing Reuters.

"Turkey must choose. Does it want to remain a critical partner in the most successful military alliance in history or does it want to risk the security of that partnership by making such reckless decisions that undermine our alliance?" Mike Pence said in remarks at a NATO event in Washington.

Note that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier in the day on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington that Turkey would inform US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton that its purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems is a "done deal."

Recall that Russia and Turkey signed a loan agreement for the supply of S-400 air defence systems in 2017. In early March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed that the deal with Russia on deliveries of the S-400 air defence systems was completed, and said a new deal on purchases of advanced Russian-made S-500 systems could be possible in future.

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