WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st May, 2019) Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Friday that he is not aware of any plan to form a joint working group with Turkey to address concerns over the country's plans to purchase S-400 missile defense systems from Russia.
"I haven't heard of the joint study group," Shanahan told reporters in Singapore when asked to comment on a report that President Donald Trump had approved the plan.
Media reports earlier on Friday said Trump had approved the plan, which Erdogan proposed to resolve a row between Ankara and Washington over the S-400 purchase.
Shanahan said he has been holding discussions about the US concerns with his Turkish counterpart over the last week, adding that the talks have been making progress.
But he emphasized that the US continues to oppose Turkey's planned purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems as it is incompatible with the F-35 fighter jet.
"I haven't changed my view on that. The F-35 and the S-400 are incompatible. If Turkey's going to buy an S-400 we should not sell them the F-35s," Shanahan told reporters at the IISS Asia Security Summit in Singapore. "The S-400 is designed to shoot down the F-35. They are natural enemies, that's the fundamental reason."
Washington has reportedly given Ankara until the end of the first week of June to either abandon the S-400 deal with Russia or face penalties, which would include sanctions, removal from Lockheed Martin's F-35 jet program and canceling the delivery of 100 F-35 jets.
Ankara has insisted that it is not going to give up its $2.5 billion S-400 contract with Moscow. The first batch of the S-400 system is expected to be delivered to Turkey in July.
