ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkey’s acquisition of the S-400 air missile defence system from Russia is risking NATO’s “cohesion and effectiveness”, a White House security advisor told the spokesperson for Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.

US national security advisor Jake Sullivan and Erdogan’s spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin spoke on the phone, according to a statement from the White House.

Sullivan “conveyed the administration’s intention to strengthen transatlantic security through NATO, expressing concern that Turkey’s acquisition of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system undermines alliance cohesion and effectiveness”, the White House statement read.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan brokered a $2.5 billion deal with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in 2017 for the purchase of the S-400 missile system. The move angered the US and other NATO members, who say that the Russian defense system poses a risk to NATO and the US’ F-35 combat aircraft.

Ankara received the first batch of the system in 2019.

In its last weeks, the Trump administration sanctioned Turkey's military procurement agency for its purchase of the S-400 system.

Biden has previously expressed criticism of the Turkish government, calling Erdogan an “autocrat” last year and condemning Turkey’s October 2019 invasion of northeast Syria.

A US State Department spokesperson told Rudaw English last week that the Biden administration would continue cooperating with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led, multi-ethnic force that controls northeast Syria (Rojava).

Turkey accuses the People’s Protection Forces (YPG), a main contingent of the SDF, of being the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – an armed group fighting for Kurdish rights in Turkey that both Ankara and Washington have designated as a terrorist organization.

Rudaw