Turkey, Russia Reach Deal on S-400 Air Defense Systems Purchases - FM Cavusoglu
The Turkish foreign minister claims Ankara and Moscow are currently negotiating the price of S-400 air defense systems deliveries to the Middle-Eastern country.
ANKARA (Sputnik) — Russia and Turkey reached an agreement on purchases of the S-400 air defense systems, the negotiations on the price are underway, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.
On Monday, Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also confirmed that the discussion was on the agenda of the upcoming talks between the Russian and Turkish leaders.
In March, Russian Presidential Aide for Military-Technical Cooperation Vladimir Kozhin said that Russia did not see Ankara's potential NATO membership as an obstacle for delivering the S-400 systems to Turkey.
Negotiations on possible deliveries of the Russian air defense system to Turkey have been conducted by both parties since 2016. In March, Sergei Chemezov, Chief Executive Officer of Russia's state military equipment manufacturer Rostec, said that Turkey was ready to buy S-400 missile systems from Russia with a loan granted by Moscow.
The S-400 Triumph is Russia's next-generation mobile surface-to-air missile system carrying three different types of missiles capable of destroying aerial targets at a short-to-extremely-long range.
