Türkiye has rejected Washington’s offer to send S-400 anti-missile systems that Türkiye bought from Russia to Ukraine.
Çavuşoğlu said that the S-400 system that the US bought from Russia insisted that Türkiye should be excluded from the F-35 fighter program, and that Türkiye should transfer control of the system to another country, such as the United States or Suggested handing over to Ukraine. We are going to fight the Russian army.
Çavuşoğlu said that these proposals were unacceptable because they aimed to violate Turkey’s sovereignty.
According to Anadolu, in 2017, Türkiye signed a deal with Russia to buy state-of-the-art S-400 systems after long efforts to buy air defense systems from the United States proved futile.
US officials opposed the deployment, claiming that the S-400 would not be compatible with NATO systems. But Türkiye said the S-400 would not be integrated into NATO systems and would not pose a threat to the alliance or its weapons.
When asked about returning to the F-35 program, Çavuşoğlu said that Ankara does not want to return to the program and wants the United States to pay the money that Türkiye paid for the fighter before it was pulled from the program. did. ,
Explaining that Ankara is now “producing its own national fighter jet”, he added that Turkey also wants to improve relations with the United States and that the necessary mechanisms have been established to do so.
But Türkiye also wants to buy F-16 jets and upgrade kits from the US, saying requests in Washington are not coming through as quickly as he thinks.
Ankara requested the F-16 and upgrade kits from the United States in October 2021. The US$6 billion contract included 40 fighter jets and 79 upgrade kits already in the possession of the Turkish Air Force.