Blinken’s first meeting with Turkish counterpart yields little
In a meeting on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, the US secretary of state and Turkish foreign minister discussed a range of issues.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has renewed calls for Turkey to ditch Russia’s S-400 missile defense system in his first face-to-face meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels today.
“Secretary Blinken urged Turkey to not retain the Russian S-400 air defense system,” the State Department said in a statement. Blinken also warned Cavusoglu of the likely consequences of Turkey getting a second batch of S-400s and Sukhoi S-57 and S-35 war planes — namely a second wave of sanctions from the Hill, diplomatic sources told Al-Monitor.
