World leaders gathered in Brussels on June 14 for the 2021 summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (), with an agenda of standing together against global security threats.
The summit included a between U.S. President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who discussed Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey’s S-400 missile deal with Russia.
Although the had been “very good,” relations between the two countries have frayed in the past few years, in large part because of the Russia missile defense deal.
Turkey justified its purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system by claiming that . In 2019, after Turkey purchased the S-400 system, the United States also removed it from the F-35 joint strike fighter jet program.
"Although Turkey has fulfilled promises regarding F-35s, unfortunately, the U.S. has not fulfilled promises,” the as saying . “[The U.S.] did not keep its promise on the Patriot system, either.’’
But that characterization is misleading. The haggling between Washington and Ankara over the F-35s and the Patriot missile defense system has been complex, and early on Erdogan also played footsie with the Chinese.
Turkey joined NATO in 1952, several years after the end of the Second World War. Turkey considers the alliance a and kept watch over NATO’s southern flank during the Cold War. NATO guaranteed Turkey’s security as an alliance member.
after the U.S.
The U.S. Patriot is a sophisticated, ground-to-air guided-missile defense system. It was designed during the Cold War but during the 1991 Gulf War. Since then, Turkey has sought NATO’s agreement to deploy the Patriot system on its soil during periods of turmoil in the region.
The outbreak of the conflict in Syria in 2011 prompted Turkey ask NATO for Patriots to protect its borders and, in 2013, NATO launched a mission to augment Turkey’s air defenses forces by installing the Patriot system.
“This system is plugged into NATO's air defense network and contributes to protect the Turkish population and territory.” NATO said in a statement.
However, , NATO offered Turkey an alternative defense system in 2015. This did not appeal to Turkey, which sought to build up its defense industry and insisted on transferring the Patriot so Turkey could manufacture the missile defense system itself.
Turkey’s ambition to secure missile defense self-sufficiency led it to announce in 2013 that it would purchase a . However, under pressure from NATO, Turkey scrapped the deal in 2015, and claimed that it did so because of of the system.
Turkish public broadcaster reported in December 2020 that Turkey’s security concerns were exacerbated by the U.S. withdrawal of a Patriot system from the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015, adding that Russia’s S-400 missile defense system was more reliable. All these factors led Turkey to pursue purchasing the S-400 from Russia.
in the fight against the Islamic State terror group in Syria weakened Turkey’s trust in the United States. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group affiliated with the Kurdistan’s Workers Party (PKK). The U.S. has designated the PKK a terrorist organization but said if found no links between the PKK and the YPG.
In November 2017, Ankara announced that it reached a deal with Moscow to buy the S-400 long-range air and anti-missile defense system to be installed on Turkish soil. In December 2018, , but Ankara decided to .
Turkey’s deal with Russia includes joint production and technology transfer to Turkey – a long-term goal sought by the Turkish government. But the U.S. said Turkey’s acquisition of the S-400 posed a security threat to the F-35 fighter jet program, given that the S-400 system could be used to gather sensitive information that could end up in Russia’s hands.
The about the influence of Russia, which NATO considers an adversary, over Turkey.
Pentagon and NATO officials warned Turkey from plugging the S-400 into NATO systems, including integrating it with the U.S F-35 jets, which could lead to data leaks and security breaches.
In 2019, Turkey received its first S-400 battery from Russia and broke off talks with the U.S. to obtain the Patriot missile system. In February, not to take possession of a second S-400 battery.
“We urge Turkey not to move ahead with the delivery of the S-400. We believe it's incompatible with the F-35,” in a February 23 briefing. “They had multiple opportunities over the last decade to purchase the Patriot defense system from the United States, and instead chose this S-400, which provides Russia revenue, access, and influence.”
Turkey and manufacture spare F-35 parts locally.