Ties to Russia no alternative to US, EU: Turkish FM

Turkey’s ties to Russia are not an alternative to relations with the U.S. and the EU, said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Tuesday.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Linas Linkevicius, Çavuşoğlu addressed Turkey’s deteriorating relations with the U.S., noting that numerous congressmen and senators are “working hard” to repair the damage done to ties between the two NATO allies.

“The U.S. should drop its threatening language. If it adopts an attitude of ‘I’ll do as I please’ like in cowboy movies, it will face a counter-reaction.”

Addressing the issue of blocking the delivery of F-35 jets to Turkey, Çavuşoğlu reiterated that Turkey is a partner in the project and that it is backed by international law.

“Can the U.S. who is saying, ‘Don’t purchase the S-400 defense system,’ guarantee that we’d be supplied with Patriot?” asked Çavuşoğlu.

Russia will begin delivering its advanced S-400 missile defense system to Turkey in 2019, Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said.

Turkey and the U.S. are currently experiencing rocky relations following Washington’s imposition of sanctions on Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül for not releasing American Pastor Andrew Brunson. The sanctions were followed by U.S President Donald Trump increasing tariffs on Turkish imports, which Turkey responded to by imposing customs duties on several U.S.-origin products, including alcohol and tobacco products and cars.

Earlier, Çavuşoğlu arrived in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius for an official visit and met Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite.

“At our meeting with President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania, we conveyed [to her] President Erdoğan’s best wishes and congratulations on the occasion of the Centennial of the Restoration of the State of Lithuania,” Cavusoglu said on Twitter.

Also on Twitter, he announced the signing of "Turkey-Lithuania Agreement on Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments."

“We appreciate Lithuania’s support for Turkey’s EU accession process," Cavusoglu added.

"Turkey is not one of the states of United States, Turkey is an independent state. We don’t have to agree on every decision or actions of one country against another country, particularly when it is not fair, and not just," he said, referring to U.S. sanctions on Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 pact between Iran and major world powers under which sanctions were lifted in return for Tehran accepting curbs on its nuclear program. The Trump administration then announced unilateral plans to restore sanctions against Tehran.