Turkey, Nato still at odds

DAVOS, Switzerland: Nato and key member Turkey have failed to find common ground over Russia’s controversial delivery of a S-400 air defence system to Ankara, the military alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

The delivery of the system by Russia to Turkey, in a deal strongly backed by President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has deeply troubled Ankara’s Nato allies and raised the risk of US sanctions.

“So far it has not been possible to reach an agreement on that,” Stoltenberg said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos at a panel discussion alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who had delivered a staunch defence of the deal. “We will try to do whatever we can to find a way to solve these issues, as this is one of the issues that is causing problems within the alliance – there is no way to deny that,” he added.