The United States has requested Turkey to guarantee that the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems purchased from Russia will not come into operation, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Turkish journalists aboard his airliner upon flight from Belgium to Turkey, TASS reports.
"As you know, we have made a proposal to the United States on the issue of Patriot air defense systems: if you are going to give us Patriot launchers, let us buy them. But as for the S-400s, they have also quite softened their stance. Now they are requesting us to promise that we will not put S-400s into operation," the Turkish president said.
The Turkish president said on March 6, however, that Turkey would start deploying S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems in April.