Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 is ‘done deal’: FM

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on March 29 said an agreement for the procurement of the Russian S-400 air defense system is a “done deal” and refuted claims that Turkey might ship the system to a third country in a bid to avoid United States’ sanctions.

“We have sealed an agreement with the Russian Federation and we are committed to this deal,” Cavusoglu told reporters after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Antalya.

The two ministers met in the Turkish minister’s hometown to coordinate the future talks between the two countries, particularly on Syria and the sale of the S-400 anti-missile system.

The U.S. strongly opposes Turkey’s decision to deploy the system on the grounds that it would endanger the safety of other NATO equipment, particularly the new generation F-35 aircrafts. Turkey is also a part of the F-35 project and expecting the deployment of the first two aircrafts by this fall.

“We have signed a deal with Russia. Now we are discussing certain expectations on when the delivery will happen or what can we do. This deal is made before a CAATSA decision,” he said, referring to the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act approved in mid-2017.

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