Erdogan: S400 Missile Purchase To Go Ahead, Will Meet w/Putin 29 Sep

Ragip Soylu at Middle East Eye tweets a thread on comments from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan:

• Erdogan says he didn't have a good start with Biden: 'After 19 years in office, I can't say that we are in a good position with the US...We won't step back from the S-400 deal. The US must understand that....Biden is transporting weapons to terrorists [in Syria]'
• Erdogan says he will have a private meeting with Putin on Sep 29, no other officials would be allowed to join. 'We will make a decision on the fate of the Turkish, Russian relations. We will also discuss Syria...We haven't seen any Russian mistake towards our relations'
• Erdogan says if Taliban establishes a diverse, comprehensive gov't, then Turkey could work with it to help Afghanistan: 'Sadly they didn't create such a gov't...There are signals that they will take some positive steps
• Erdogan says after Armenian PM Pashinyan's positive remarks on the reconciliation with Turkey, Ankara will soon take some steps to establish a platform with 6 countries to create a regional synergy to resolve issues
• Erdogan once again says there isn't any Kurdish question in Turkey. "There is no such thing. We resolved it" He says a draft social media regulation will soon to be submitted to the parliament. Also five main chain stores will be inspected for high prices

The criticism of the US combined with the warm words towards Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely be of further concern to NATO powers. The body has come in for significant criticism in recent weeks over the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. The AUKUS alliance is likely to come increasingly to the fore in global geopolitics, and with EU members speculating about a defence pact within the bloc, the drift of Turkey towards Russia could fall by the wayside in terms of pressing issues. This in turn could risk NATO losing a key ally and staging post in the near East.