Thursday, 11 February 2021 (YJC)_ After Biden Cabinet Confirms It Will Maintain Sanctions, Turkey Refuses to Ditch Russian S-400s.
Turkey is not planning to renege on the S-400 air defence systems it bought from Russia, a spokesman for the country's president, Ibrahim Kalin, has stated in an interview with TRT Haber.
The spokesman stressed that the decision to buy the air defences from Russia was not made overnight and recalled that the contract had been signed before the US signed into law its Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, allowing the White House to introduce sanctions against countries buying weapons from states deemed "adversary" by Washington - namely Russia and China.
Kalin said that Ankara expressed readiness to negotiate on the issue with Biden's administration, but the process has not been started yet. He added that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might meet his American counterpart soon.
Previously, the Democrat's team revealed that he is not planning to overturn the policy of punishing Turkey over the acquisition of Russian air defence systems initiated under Republican Donald Trump. Biden's administration accused Turkey of not acting like a NATO ally by buying weapons from Moscow.
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