Turkey on NATO's Hot Seat over Russian Missiles Purchase

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THE RUNDOWN | Turkey remains in NATO's dog house as it prepares to receive the Russian S-400 missile defense system. How does the U.S. see this? TRT World's Mustafa Ali analyzes.

Story:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said Russia's S-400 air defense missiles are currently being prepared to be shipped to Turkey.

“The preparations for the journey, the loading (of the S-400) is continuing … The S-400 will arrive by planes. May it be beneficial for our country, our region and especially for the world,” Erdogan said, without specifying when exactly the shipments will take place.

Ankara's push to buy Moscow's S-400 missile defense system has strained ties between the NATO allies, with the threat of penalties from Washington looming over Turkey.

President Donald Trump has blamed the previous administration of Barack Obama for failing to finalize a deal for Turkey to buy the American Patriot system instead of the Russian S-400.

In response to the purchase, the United States threatened to cancel Turkey's order of 116 F-35 fighter jets and kick it off the training and production program, as well as implement wider economic sanctions, if the deal was not scrapped by July 31.

But Ergodan has repeatedly insisted that the S400 purchase is a "done deal," labeling the US refusal to deliver the planes a "robbery."

 Last week, he complained that Turkey has already paid $1.4 billion towards the warplanes, while its defense industry has plowed significant sums into their production.

"If you seek a customer, and a customer comes forward and makes payments like clockwork, how can you not give that customer their goods? This would be robbery," Erdogan was quoted as saying by Hurriyet daily.

Israel and other NATO allies are also concerned that Ankara’s purchase of the S-400 air defense missile systems will allow Russia to glean data from the F-35s to hone the ability of the system to shoot down Western planes.