VLADIVOSTOK, September 4. /TASS/. Turkey has not addressed Russia with a formal request yet concerning the purchase of Sukhoi-57 jets, but consultations on the issue are already underway, the chief of the federal service for military-technical cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev, said on Wednesday.
"There have been no requests for Sukhoi-57s yet, so it is premature to speculate about any concrete talks," he told the media.
At the same time he added that "consultations are already in progress on the Sukhoi-35 and Sukhoi-57."
Speculations over whether Turkey might consider purchasing Russian fighter jets went into high gear in the wake of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Moscow on August 27. While visiting the international aerospace show MAKS-2019 in the company of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Erdogan showed interest in Sukhoi combat planes. After that he remarked he did not rule out the possibility of purchasing Sukhoi-35 and Sukhoi-57 instead of the United States’ F-35. "Why not?" he said.
On July 17, the White House said in a written statement that Turkey’s decision to purchase Russia’s air defense systems S-400 made its further participation in creating US fifth generation fighter bombers F-35 impossible. Ankara had plans for purchasing 100 planes and manufactured part of the equipment, avionics and fuselage components for that plane.
The 5th Eastern Economic Forum is underway in Vladivostok on September 4-6. The Roscongress foundation is its organizer, and TASS, general information partner, official photo host and moderator of the zone of presentations of the Far East’s innovative opportunities.