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ANKARA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Turkey said on Wednesday it would
retaliate against any U.S. sanctions over its purchase of
Russian defence systems, adding that with Britain it had agreed
to speed up a joint fighter jet programme to meet Turkish
defence needs.
U.S. lawmakers will vote - and likely pass - a defence bill
later on Wednesday that calls for sanctions against Turkey over
Ankara's decision to procure the S-400 defences.
Turkey and the United States, NATO allies, have been at odds
over the purchase.
Washington says the S-400s pose a threat to its F-35 fighter
jets and cannot be integrated into NATO defences. In response,
it has suspended Turkey from the F-35 jet programme, where it
was a manufacturer and buyer, and threatened sanctions.
In an interview with Turkish broadcaster A Haber, Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said any U.S. sanctions would harm
U.S.-Turkish ties and repeated a threat of retaliation.
"U.S. lawmakers must understand they will get nowhere with
impositions. If the United States approaches us positively, we
will also react positively. But, if they take negative towards
us, then we will retaliate these," Cavusoglu said.
Ties between Ankara and Washington have been strained over a
host of issues in recent years. Turkey has been enraged with the
U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Cavusoglu
called the "financing of terrorism" on Wednesday.
He added that Turkey was open to alternatives to buying the
F-35 jets, including from Russia. He said President Tayyip
Erdogan and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had discussed
speeding up work on the TF-X joint fighter jet project to meet
Turkey's defence needs.
"We bought the S-400s because the most suitable offer on air
defence systems came from Russia. Until we produce it ourselves,
the alternative to the F-35 could be the Russian market, but we
are open to other alternatives too," Cavusoglu said.
Turkey and Britain agreed a 100 million pound ($133 million)
deal in 2017 to develop Turkish fighter jets, and Turkey's Kale
Group said it was setting up a joint venture with Rolls-Royce
to work on the project. In March Rolls-Royce said it had
scaled back efforts to join the programme.
A Turkish source said the disagreement with Rolls-Royce
stemmed from licensing issues, which are "critical and
indispensible" for Turkey. But the source said talks had been
revived and added Turkey expected the project to advance after a
solution was reached.
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay, Tuvan Gumrukcu and Orhan Coskun;
Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
