Turkey has agreed to pay $2.5bn to acquire Russia’s most advanced missile defence system, a senior Turkish official said, in a deal that signals a turn away from the Nato military alliance that has anchored Turkey to the West for more than six decades.
The preliminary agreement sees Turkey receiving two S-400 missile batteries from Russia within the next year, and then producing another two inside Turkey, according to the Turkish official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. Turkey has reached the point of an agreement on a missile defence system before, only to scupper the deal later amid protests and condemnation from Nato. Under pressure from the US, Turkey gave up an earlier plan to buy a similar missile-defence system from a state-run Chinese company, which had been sanctioned by the US for alleged missile sales to Iran.
Turkey has been in Nato since the early years of the Cold War. But ties with fellow members have been strained in recent years, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pursuing a more assertive and independent foreign policy as conflict engulfed neighbouring Iraq and Syria.
Tensions with Washington mounted over US support for Kurdish militants in Syria that Turkey considers terrorists.