MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. Russia and Turkey may shortly sign a contract on the delivery of the second regiment set of S-400 air defense missile systems, Head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Monday.

"I believe we will conclude the second contract in the foreseeable future. It implies Turkish partners’ certain participation in the production process," Shugayev commented.

As he specified, the talks were on an additional batch. "We are at quite a serious stage and all the technical issues have been settled and so on," he explained.

According to Shugayev, this will be mutually advantageous cooperation without any damage to the Russian side. "We observe national interests," he stressed.

The first regiment set of S-400 air defense missile systems is already on the territory of Turkey and specialists have been trained to operate them, Shugayev highlighted. "The question now is when Turkey makes a decision on placing them on combat duty. This is their priority," he commented.

Russia announced in September 2017 that it had signed a $2.5 billion deal with Turkey on the delivery of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to Ankara. Under the contract, Ankara got a regiment set of S-400 air defense missile systems (two battalions). The deal also envisaged partial transfer of production technology to the Turkish side.

Turkey is the first NATO member state to purchase such air defense missile systems from Russia. The deliveries of S-400 launchers to Turkey began on July 12, 2019.

The United States and NATO have been making attempts to prevent Turkey from purchasing Russia's S-400 missile systems. Washington has warned on many occasions that it may impose sanctions on Turkey, if Ankara presses ahead with the S-400 deal. On July 17, 2019, the press secretary of the US White House said in a written statement that Turkey’s decision to acquire Russian-made S-400 air defense systems rendered Ankara’s further participation in the US program of the fifth-generation F-35 fighter-bomber impossible.

S-400 deliveries to China

Russia will complete the implementation of the contract for the supplies of its S-400 missile defense systems to China before the year-end, according to the chief of Russia’s Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation.

"We have long-standing relations with China and we have current contracts. Thus, we will complete the implementation of our liabilities under S-400 contract this year," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

A military diplomatic source told TASS earlier that Russia had completed deliveries of the second S-400 regiment set to China. The acceptance document was signed in China in December 2019. The client also received more than 120 advanced guided surface-to-air missiles of two types.

China was the first foreign buyer of Russian S-400 missile systems. It signed a contract for two regiment sets of these systems. The first set was delivered to China in the spring of 2018 and successfully tested in December 2018.

The S-400 ‘Triumf’ is the most advanced long-range air defense missile system that went into service in Russia in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range weapons, and can also be used against ground installations. The S-400 can engage targets at a distance of 400 km and at an altitude of up to 30 km.