OREANDA-NEWS. A group of leading US congressmen declared that the choice made by Turkey administration between purchasing either an American F-35 fighter aircraft or a Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system will lead to profound consequences for its place in the world, its relationship with the USA and its standing in North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Russian S-400 was built to shoot down the F-35 airplanes, and if Turkish army gets it, Ankara will be sanctioned according to American law, senators said.

Since 2012, the White House has offered Turkey to buy the Patriot air defence system which is an alternative to the S-400,  but all the proposals were declined.

Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu commented the ideas of Washington politicians saying that the C-400 system is safe for NATO, American airplanes fly near Russian air defence systems in Syria and Norway, it is planned to supply F-35 to Bulgaria, Greece and Slovakia, despite they use Russian S-300. As for American Patriot, its price is too high and the delivery time is too long. As for the F-35, Çavuşoğlu said that Turkey has already invested $ 1.2 billion in this project and it will not be easy to stop realization of the program, but if the Pentagon does not supply F-35, Turkey will have to find the aircraft it needs elsewhere, for example to purchase Russian fighter aircrafts Su-34 or Su-57.

Concerning Turkey’s membership in NATO, Çavuşoğlu said that the idea of its termination is absurd: “We are one of the nations which have made the greatest contribution to the Alliance”.