US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said on Friday that Washington and Ankara are approaching a resolution to their dispute over U.S. sanctions imposed after Turkey’s acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile system, according to Reuters.
“I think you are going to see the S-400 situation solved soon. From my boss’s point of view, acceptance into an F-35 programme is fine,” Barrack said at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.
Despite the fact that both leaders maintained close personal bonds during Trump’s 2017-21 term as president, their relationship witnessed frequent tensions due to certain disputes over US support for Kurdish fighters in Syria and Turkey’s growing relations with Moscow.
In 2019, Ankara sparked a sharp backlash from the Trump administration by purchasing Russian S-400 missile systems.
As a result, Trump canceled a planned sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and removed it from the joint production program.
Subsequently, Ankara secured a deal to purchase F-16 jets.
Then, US officials have expressed concern that Turkey’s use of Russia’s S-400 missile defense system could threaten the security of F-35 technology by collecting sensitive data that might be shared with Moscow.
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