State Department urges Turkey to ‘avoid transactions’ with Russian defense industry

After the TASS news agency reported on Tuesday that Moscow and Ankara had signed a contract to ship Ankara a second batch of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, the United States urged its NATO ally Turkey to “avoid transactions” with Russia’s defense industry.

“The point that we have consistently made across the board is that Russia’s brutal and unjustified war against Ukraine makes it vital, now more than ever in some ways, that all countries avoid transactions with Russia’s defense sector,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told a press briefing.

“We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but we are not aware of any new developments on this matter,” he said.

Price did not say whether the delivery of a second batch of the controversial missile system would prompt the Biden administration to reconsider plans to sell F-16 military aircraft to Turkey.

An unnamed Turkish defense official on Tuesday denied the TASS report, saying there were “no new agreements.”