ANKARA, February 22. /TASS/. The leaders of Russia and Turkey may discuss the purchase of Russia’s advanced S-400 antiaircraft missile systems at a session of the High-Level Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council in March, spokesman for the Turkish president Ibrahim Kalin said on Wednesday.
"The talks are continuing on the S-400. The defense industry’s secretariat and the president are receiving information about that. We are closely watching the negotiations. I don’t know whether we’ll have enough time to deal with this issue before a session of the High-Level Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council that will be held in Russia. But, of course, this theme will be raised at the level of the leaders," he said in a broadcast of TRT TV Channel.
Kalin added that "in the context of negotiations on this issue, there are a lot of technical issues" that require a detailed discussion.
Speaking about possible contradictions with NATO that may arise in the case of purchasing S-400 missile systems from Russia, the Turkish president’s spokesman said that he "does not see in this regard any problems or negative aspects."
"Besides, there are examples when some NATO countries are using these systems. We know about them. The issue of compatibility is easily solved at the technical level," he said.
It was reported earlier that a session of the High-Level Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council would be held in Russia in March this year.
During his visit to Russia in March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intends to discuss the pace of normalizing bilateral relations, the cancellation of Russia’s trade sanctions imposed after a Russian fighter jet had been downed by the Turkish Air Force over Syria in late 2015, the Syria issue and anti-terror measures, Kalin said.
"A trip by the president to the Russian Federation is planned as a session of the High-Level Cooperation Council will be held in March. Now, in the context of normalizing relations, work is under way on lifting the sanctions imposed after the incident with the plane [November 24, 2015]. We hope that during the visit this work will be finished," he said.
The agenda of the talks between the two leaders and the agenda of a general session of the High-Level Cooperation Council will include "Syria, the fight against terrorism, the theme of Iraq and bilateral relations," Kalin said.
"During the visit, we’ll also have a possibility to discuss these and other topics," he said.
The session of the High-Level Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council is scheduled to be held in Moscow on March 10.