The United States' concerns over Ankara's purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile defense system are "political", Vice President of Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defense Industries Celal Sami Tufekci said.
"Our work on the S-400 goes back," before this proposal, Tufekci said following a think tank panel in Washington.
"We talked not only with Russia and the U.S. but also with many European countries. I believe that the United States expresses its concerns in terms of politics. I think they are the arguments that have been generated against Turkey," Anadolu Agency cited him as saying.
Tufekci rejected the allegation that information on the fighter jets’ software would be obtained by the Russian missile system and said American and Israeli F-35 jets were easily flying over Syria where Russian radars are active.
"Technically, everything is possible, but Turkey will use its domestic software. We are a friendly country with the U.S.," he said, pledging that Turkey would not allow any information on the F-35 jets to go anywhere.
