WASHINGTON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The White House confirmed on Wednesday that Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems has led to the termination of Ankara's involvement with the F-35 program.
"Turkey's decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible," the White House said in a statement.
Also on Wednesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry called the U.S. move a unilateral step which might bring irreparable damage to bilateral relations.
"This unilateral move is not related to the alliance spirit and has no legitimate foundations. It is unfair that Turkey, which is one of the (United States') main partners on the F-35 program, is excluded from it," the ministry said in a statement.
"We are calling on the United States to abandon this mistake which might cause the irreparable damage to our strategic relations," it said.
The Pentagon has also announced that the United States will spend at least 500 million U.S. dollars to shift the supply chain of Turkish-made F-35 fighter jet parts.
Turkey suppliers, which provide over 900 parts for F-35, would no longer receive 9 billion dollars in projected work share over the life of the program, said Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord during a press briefing at the Pentagon later on Wednesday.
"Turkey will certainly and regrettably lose jobs and future economic opportunities from this decision," Lord added.
Turkey has ordered over 100 F-35 fighter jets, and a handful of them had been scheduled to transport to Turkey in the coming months. The arrangement of those F-35 was still under discussion, according to Lord.
Ankara's acceptance of the S-400 not only has detrimental impacts on Turkish interoperability with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but also undermines the commitments all NATO allies made to each other to move away from Russian systems, the White House said.
Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that no member of the alliance had raised the issue of Turkey's exclusion from it due to its purchases of Russian S-400 missile systems.
"Turkey is an important NATO member and no ally has raised that issue at all because we all see that we are dependent on each other," Stoltenberg said during the Aspen Security Forum in the United States' city of Aspen.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry noted that claims that S-400 threatened F-35 jets were groundless.
"Turkey's suggestion to create a task force together with NATO on this issue, which has remained unanswered, is the most obvious sign of prejudice from the United States and its unwillingness to settle this issue in good faith," the ministry argued.
The Trump administration, at the same time, sought to reduce the repercussion for bilateral relations.
Washington still greatly values the strategic relationship with Turkey, the statement noted, saying U.S.-Turkey military-to-military relationship is strong and the two allies would continue to cooperate extensively.
The United States has been actively working with Turkey to provide air defense solutions to meet its legitimate air defense needs, said the statement.
The statement, however, made no mention of possible sanctions against Turkey as required by law under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
Pentagon officials also deferred all questions about possible sanctions to the Department of State.
In December 2017, Ankara and Moscow signed a 2.5-billion-dollar agreement for two batteries of the S-400 system. Turkey began taking the delivery of the S-400 system on July 12.
