Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday that US threats to remove his country from the F-35 pilot training program over Ankara's plans to buy the Russian S-400 missile systems were not in the spirit of the alliance
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th June, 2019) Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday that US threats to remove his country from the F-35 pilot training program over Ankara's plans to buy the Russian S-400 missile systems were not in the spirit of the alliance.
US Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan sent a letter to Akar last week, seen by the Foreign Policy magazine, in which he said Turkish trainees would have to leave the United States by July 31.
"The language in Shanahan's letter contradicts the spirit of our alliance. We are preparing a fitting response," Akar was cited as saying by a Turkish news channel, NTV.
Turkey signed a deal with Russia in 2017 to buy its advanced S-400 missiles. The United States has repeatedly warned Turkey it will scale down their military cooperation, arguing that the Russian weapons are incompatible with NATO systems. Turkey has said the deliveries in July will go ahead.
