Turkey won’t bow to US pressure, will advance S-400 purchase

MOSCOW: A Russian military official says Turkey would not cave in to pressure from the United States over advancing the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defence systems.

Dmitry Shugayev, the head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, expressed the belief on Friday, as Washington keeps warning Ankara to drop the purchase. “They (the Americans) oppose supplies to any country in every possible way. In particular, they have problems with Turkey, we are all aware of it. Thanks God, our Turkish partners remain firm and understand that this is a matter of their national security. I believe we will move on,” he said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said a day earlier that Turkey needed more air defense systems and was well within its rights to acquire them from various sources. “Today, we produce 70% of our defense industry needs in our country. We also produce and export with high quality. But we still need to procure products that we can’t produce in our country one way or another,” Cavusoglu said. “Turkey, as an independent country, will use this right in the future as well,” he stressed.