Turkey aims to soothe NATO over Russian missiles

Turkey's foreign minister has reiterated a proposal to establish a NATO-lead committee to review possible threats to the alliance from Turkey's purchase of a Russian-made missile defense system.

Speaking Thursday at a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he believes the S-400 missiles don't pose a threat to NATO, of which Turkey is a member.

"Let the experts assess this," Cavusoglu said.

The United States and other NATO members say the Russian system threatens NATO and the U.S.-led F-35 stealth jet program. Washington has removed Turkey from the F-35 program and US lawmakers have called for sanctions over the Turkish government's decision to proceed with the purchase and deployment of the Russian technology.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the panel the alliance has so far not been able to reach an agreement on Turkey's committee proposal.

Stoltenberg said: "We will try to do whatever we can to find a way to solve this issue because it's one of the issues that has created problems inside the alliance. There's no way to deny that." [AP]