Military officials work around a Russian transport aircraft carrying parts of the S-400 air defense systems, after it landed at Murted military airport outside Ankara on Aug. 27.. Turkish Defence Ministry via AP
US Might Still Sanction Turkey For Buying S-400 From Russia
Any punishments would supplement Ankara’s ejection from the F-35 program.
The United States is still considering levying sanctions on Turkey for buying Russian S-400 air-defense batteries, a top State Department official said Thursday.
R. Clarke Cooper, assistant secretary for political-military affairs, said the potential new measures would supplement the Trump administration’s decision to kick Turkey out of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
“They are not out of the woods on imposition of sanctions. That is still at play,” Cooper said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast.
The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, requires the U.S. to sanction Turkey for buying the S-400 from Russia. After the weapons began to arrive in July, the U.S. officials canceled the NATO ally’s F-35 orders and ejected the country from the program.
“What is a constant point of edification for me with all of our partners is, some of our sanctions regimes, including CAATSA, are statutory. We are obligated to address these,” Cooper said. “Turkey is an interesting case because we have a number of partners where we have growing relationships with who are closely watching how Turkey is managed and how they may either seek or choose not to seek acquisition from a near-peer adversary.”
U.S. officials have said that military-to-military relations between Washington and Ankara remain strong.
“Depending on who one talks to in Turkish government, there are those who are acutely aware and sensitive and appreciative that this is not over and are wanting to get back to the way things may have been at a different time and the decisions coming out of Ankara are not necessarily reflective of the military institution or the foreign ministry,” Cooper said.
U.S. defense companies, many of which do business with Turkey, and Wall Street analysts have closely monitoring whether the U.S. imposes the CAATSA sanctions.
“We continue to believe this is a major, possibly irreparable, fracture with Turkey, an important NATO ally,” Roman Schweizer, an analyst with Cowen & Company, wrote in an Aug. 1 note to investors. “For multiple reasons, Russia has succeeded in driving a wedge in the alliance. It is not clear to us how the U.S.-Turkey relationship can be mended.”