In an interview with Bloomberg, Shanakhan said that after his appointment as Head of the Pentagon on January 1, he spoke with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar five times. Among the key topics of these conversations, he called the question of the purchase of Ankara air defense system from Moscow.
“My position is that C-400 and F-35 are incompatible,” said Shanakhan.
According to him, the United States wants to find a solution that "will make the F-35 a crucially important means of the armed forces of a strategic partner."
Answering the question, what actions will Washington take if Ankara gets the C-400, Shanakhan noted that “we will talk about this when this happens”.
Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured that the country would not refuse to buy Russian anti-aircraft missile systems.