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Turkey in talks with Russia on other technical issues in addition to S-400 systems

The head of the Turkish Defense Industry Secretariat didn't name specific aircraft models

S-400 air defense missile systems Sergei Malgavko/TASS

S-400 air defense missile systems

© Sergei Malgavko/TASS

MOSCOW, June 13. /TASS/. Turkey is interested in purchasing other military hardware from Russia in addition to S-400 air defense missile systems and is holding negotiations on other technical issues, Head of the Turkish Defense Industry Secretariat Ismail Demir said in an interview with TGRT TV Channel on Wednesday.

"Now our negotiations with Russia are not limited only to the S-400 issue and dialogue on other technical themes is underway," he said, thus responding to a question about the probability for Turkey to buy fifth-generation fighter jets not only from the United States (F-35 aircraft) but also from other countries, including Russia (Su-57 planes).

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"I wouldn’t name specific aircraft models but I can say that negotiations with other partners on these technical issues are underway," Demir said.

As he pointed out, the dialogue with Russia "is underway on a whole range of issues in various fields and spheres, on joint production and cooperation" in the defense industry.

It was reported in November 2016 that Turkey was in talks with Russia on purchasing S-400 air defense missile systems. The contract’s signing was confirmed by the Russian side on September 12, 2017 and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced at the time that Turkey had already made an advance payment under the contract.

Turkey became the second foreign buyer of the S-400 system after China and the first NATO member country to get the surface-to-air missile systems from Russia.

Different timeframes of the S-400 delivery to Turkey were mentioned earlier. In March 2018, Russian presidential aide for military and technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin said that Russia planned to deliver the regiment set of S-400 missile systems to Turkey in early 2020.

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