Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said US President Donald Trump did not bring up the Turkish decision to buy a Russian S-400 missile defense system during their meeting on Thursday in New York, Habertürk reported on Saturday.
“Trump did not need to talk about the S-400 issue. This shows the importance of our determined stance,” said Erdoğan during a press conference with a group of Turkish journalists in New York.
Erdoğan also said the US president remained silent when he raised the issue of US military aid to Kurdish militants in Syria.
A day ahead of the meeting between Erdoğan and Trump, Turkey’s state-run news agency Anadolu tweeted an infographic depicting the capacity of the S-400 to shoot down US-NATO planes and missiles.
Ankara has signed a deal with Russia to buy the S-400 missile defense system despite opposition from NATO allies. Erdoğan criticized those questioning Turkey buying the system and suggested Ankara would make its own decisions on what to buy, regardless of NATO’s wishes.
Pentagon spokesman Johnny Michael said that the US has relayed its concerns to Turkish officials over the purchase of the S-400 from Russia.
Moscow confirmed the agreement, with Vladimir Kozhin, Putin’s adviser for military and technical cooperation, saying, “The contract has been signed and is being prepared for implementation.”