Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 11
By Anakhanum Hidayatova – Trend:
NATO says that Turkey is its strong and committed ally.
“We welcome the improvement in Turkey’s bilateral relations with Russia,” the NATO office in Brussels told Trend March 11.
Commenting on Turkey’s possible purchase of Russian S-400 air defence systems, NATO said it is up to Allies to decide what military equipment they buy.
“What matters for NATO is that the equipment Allies acquire is able to operate together. Interoperability of our armed forces is fundamental to NATO for the conduct of our operations and missions.”
Turkey has earlier stated its readiness to discuss with Russia a deal on purchase of the S-400 Triumf air defense systems, which are considered incompatible with similar systems used by NATO.
The S-400 is Russia's next-generation air defense system, carrying three different types of missiles capable of destroying aerial targets at a short-to-extremely-long range. The weapon is capable of tracking and destroying all existing aerial targets, including ballistics and cruise missiles.