(ABNA24.com) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will consider turning to others for fighter jets if the United States refuses to sell it F-35 fifth-generation and multirole combat aircraft, stressing that Washington's decision to remove Ankara from the jet production program would not deter his country from meeting its security needs.
Speaking at a meeting with the provincial heads of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the capital Ankara on Friday, Erdogan highlighted that Turkey may also reconsider its purchase of advanced Boeing aircraft from the United States.
“Are you not giving us the F-35s? Okay then, excuse us but we will once again have to take our measures on the matter and we will turn elsewhere,” he said.
“Even though we're not getting F-35s, we are buying 100 advanced Boeing aircraft. The agreement is signed... At the moment, one of the Boeing planes has arrived and we are making the payments, we are good customers,” Erdogan said, adding, “But, if things continue like this, we will have to reconsider this.”
The remarks came a day after Alexander Mikheev, head of Russian official arms exporter company Rosoboronexport, said Ankara and Moscow are in talks on the production of component parts of advanced Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems.
“Now we are negotiating to continue our cooperation on this issue, including the organization of license production of certain component parts of the system in Turkey,” he said.
He also added that cooperation on the S-400 delivery “strengthened the strategic partnership” between the two countries.
“Rosoboronexport plans to expand its contacts with the Turkish side as much as possible to implement mutually beneficial projects in the fields of helicopter construction, combat aviation, and air defense,” Mikheev added.
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source : Pars Today
Sunday
28 July 2019
5:22:48 AM
965058
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will consider turning to others for fighter jets if the United States refuses to sell it F-35 fifth-generation and multirole combat aircraft, stressing that Washington's decision to remove Ankara from the jet production program would not deter his country from meeting its security needs.