Matthew Axelrod, assistant commerce secretary leading US efforts to keep sensitive technology out of the hands of America’s adversaries, recently met Turkish officials and executives in Ankara and Istanbul as part of efforts to halt the illicit trade. His message, according to a senior commerce department official, was that Türkiye must work harder to curb trade in American-origin chips and other parts that are pivotal for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
"We need Türkiye to help us stop the illicit flow of US technology to Russia,” Axelrod said in a statement to the Financial Times. "We need to see progress, and quickly, by Turkish authorities and industry or we will have no choice but to impose consequences on those that evade our export controls,” he added. Washington’s warning is the latest sign of how Türkiye’s decision to retain strong trade ties with Russia has tarnished relations between the two Nato allies.
The US, EU and other western partners have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but Türkiye has eschewed the curbs and increased trade with the country since the war broke out. The US is particularly worried that Türkiye has become a key hub through which western-made electronics, including processors, memory cards and amplifiers, are making their way to Russian missiles and drones in contravention of export controls. Machine tools are another significant area of concern.
Axelrod told the Turkish government that this trade was an "urgent problem”, and called on Ankara to "adopt and enforce a ban on the transshipment of US controlled items to Russia”, the official said.
He added that Moscow was "trying to exploit Türkiye’s trade policy” to access US parts. The commerce department has already added 18 Turkish companies to its "entities list” over this trade; this requires American companies to acquire rare licences to sell these groups sensitive parts. The commerce official said "you can expect to see more of that going forward unless and until there is progress”. The Treasury department has separately sanctioned numerous Turkish companies for allegedly supplying Russia’s military-industrial complex.
The toughening stance has also sharply increased the costs Russia must pay to import US-origin goods from Türkiye, according to the commerce official. He added: "There’s been some recent progress . . . but it’s not enough, because it’s still way too high.”
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