ANKARA (TASS) – Ankara is no longer considering the possibility of purchasing the Patriot missile systems from the United States, head of Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries Ismail Demir said on Monday.
“There is currently no demand for the Patriot missile systems. As far as our defense industry is concerned, we have closed this page,” the Sabah newspaper quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, in Demir’s words, the implementation of Ankara’s contract to purchase the S-400 air defense systems from Russia “continues without any issues.”
Moscow and Ankara signed a contract for the delivery of the S-400 systems in 2017. Turkey became the first NATO country to purchase these systems from Russia. The U.S. is still continuing efforts to push Turkey to abandon the Russian systems. In particular, Washington earlier excluded Ankara from the F-35 development program.
The U.S. also kept threatening to impose unilateral sanctions on Turkey over the S-400 deal but did not rush to take such steps for fear of further tensions with its key NATO ally as Ankara had warned that such restrictions would not go unanswered. However, Washington finally introduced the sanctions in question in December 2020.