ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey will not back down from its decision to buy Russian S-400 missile defence systems and rejects any ultimatums on the issue, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday in response to U.S. warnings about the purchase.
Cavusoglu was responding to a question about a letter in which U.S. acting Secretary of Defence Patrick Shanahan warned Turkey that it would be pulled out of the F-35 fighter jet programme unless Ankara changed course from its plans to install the S-400s.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ali Kucukgocmen; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
