ANKARA (middle East Eye) – Turkey is not in the final stages of signing a deal to purchase a second unit of Russian-made missile defense system S-400 as asserted by Russia, a senior Turkish official told Middle East Eye on Tuesday.
The official said there had been no change in the status of the negotiations with Moscow.
On Monday, the general director of Russian state arms supplier Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, said that the consultations between Turkey and Russia on the new supply of the S-400s were at the final stage. “And in the near future we will go out with partners to formalize and sign a contract,” he said, according to the Russian state media.
Washington imposed sanctions on Turkish officials in December under a U.S. law that bars significant military transactions with Russia due to its initial deal to receive the first S-400 system. Turkey was also removed from the fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet program by the Pentagon in 2019 due to concerns over possible Russian espionage through the S-400s.
Turkish officials held a series of meetings with the Biden administration earlier this year to resolve the issue but they could not reach a solution to remove the sanctions.