According to Haber Turkish TV and MEE a staffer for Ibrahim Kalin who is a senior aide to President Erdogan and National Security Adviser John Bolton discussed details of the visit this past Tuesday April 30, 2019 following Monday’s call between President Trump and President Erdogan.
The Monday phone call comes days after Alexander Mikheev , who on April 23, 2019 announced that the Russian arms order to Turkey is proceeding as scheduled and Turkey will be receiving the missile systems from Russia by July.
Alexander Mikheev who is the head of the S-400 manufacturing company. This statement leaves no room to imply that Turkey has decided to re-evaluate the S-400 order and or strongly considered Washington’s ultimatum.
Due to sanctions the Russian Manufacturer had to use alternate methods for the transactions. Last summer, Mikheev mentioned that Russia plans to switch to national currencies, including the rupee, yuan, dirham and ruble, in transactions with its defense industry partners.
We have considered various ways of working amid sanctions and the inability to carry out transactions in US dollars. We have discussed it with our clients and partners.
Alexander Mikheev at the International Military-Technical Forum
RELATED: US NATO WITHDRAWAL- NATO Response to Turkey’s Decisions Will Determining Factor
The United States of America and Turkey are both NATO members. In fact Turkey is the second largest military force after the United States. Relations between the two countries has been rocky for multiple reasons including
Turkey’s purchase of S-400 missiles from Russia, the Iran Sanctions Oil waivers that expired today May 2, 2019 and the USA showing support for Kurdish forces during the battle against the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria.
Aforementioned, Trump and Erdogan spoke to each other in a telephone call on Monday to discuss the S-400 deal, which the US has warned could allow Moscow to obtain critical data about its next-generation F-35 fighter jet.
The Pentagon has threatened to block the delivery of F-35 jets to Turkey due to concerns that S-400 and F-35 cannot share the same airspace due to sensitive data being transferred from the jet to the missile revealing vulnerabilities of the jets that is critical information that may end up with Russia.
At the moment Turkey has their own Turkish pilots training on two F-35 they have taken possession of on US soil. The jets and their pilots are training in Arizona at the moment and the F-35’s have not been transferred to Turkey yet.
On April 30, 2019 Erdogan was a speaker at the 2019 International Defense Industry Fair in Turkey.
An F-35 project without Turkey will collapse. Those in the Pentagon that want to exclude Turkey from the plane’s operation patches and manufacturing should think again.
President Erdogan of Turkey @Reuters
The same day Erdogan made those comments Aviation analyst Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute in London (RUSI) told CNBC that the Turkish president’s claims were an exaggeration and that the U.S. will not allow the program to fail. There is a lot riding on this for the Air Force and if logistically there are struggles it’s nothing that can’t be figured out.
Many state that this is a way for the US to exclude Turkey, a NATO ally from having F-35’s and that they are applauding it but Bronk refuted that notion on the basis of cost and NATO alliance custom.
This is absolutely not the U.S. joyously seizing on an excuse to get Turkey out of the F-35 program. They are really irritated about having to do this.
Justin Bronk CNBC
President Trump is set to visit Turkey in July but the exact dates are still being discussed as it is possible the visit may be scheduled for June possibly right after President Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom.
Turkey is not easily able to diversify its oil imports. Turkey’s refineries are not “suitable” for other countries’ oil. Washington should review its decisions on the issue as we will not honor it.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu Press Conference @Reuters
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Turkish
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
This statement comes after his side bar meeting at Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) with the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Qatar on Wednesday May 1, 2019.
Today, May 2, 2019 Turkey announced that they are unable to find alternative sources to meet their needs for energy. Iran is their largest import source and thus as of tomorrow in violation of US Sanctions. The US may sanction Turkey for continuing to buy oil from Iran after today and if the meeting ensues it may be “heated” thus may not happen at all.
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