WASHINGTON, Jun 18 (NNN-XINHUA) – U.S. President, Joe Biden, and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed earlier this week that Turkey would play a leading role in securing Kabul airport, but the two sides remain divided over the issue of the S-400 air defence systems, National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, said yesterday.
Biden on Monday had his first face-to-face meeting with Erdogan, after taking office, on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Sullivan told reporters in a phone briefing that, the two leaders had a detailed discussion of a potential Turkish mission, to protect the airport, following the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan.
“A clear commitment was established that Turkey would play a lead role in securing the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan and we are working on it,” he added.
Sullivan said, Biden committed to providing the support Turkey needed to fulfill that task.
However, the two leaders made no progress on the issue of Turkey’s acquisition of Russian S-400 air defence system, Sullivan noted.
“On the S-400, there was not a resolution of the issue,” he said. “There was a commitment to continue the dialogue on the S-400, and the two teams will be following up on that coming out of the meeting.”
Russia and Turkey finalised the S-400 air defence system deal, worth about 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, in 2017, and the delivery was completed in 2019. Turkey is the first NATO member to purchase such a system from Russia.
In response, the United States suspended Turkey’s involvement in the F-35 fighter jet programme and imposed a series of sanctions against Ankara.– NNN-XINHUA
