Turkey, Russia interested in fighter jet deal, Kremlin says as talks continue

  14 September 2019    Read: 1094
Turkey, Russia interested in fighter jet deal, Kremlin says as talks continue

Russia and Turkey are interested in landing a possible deal on fighter jets, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Friday.

He recalled that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally examined latest Russian technologies at the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS-2019 on Aug. 27, including fifth generation fighter jets Su-57 and 4++ generation fighter jets Su-35.

"These talks relate to an extremely sensitive topic, so it is premature to talk about it now. Many people observed Erdoğan's stay in Zhukovsky, what he looked at, what we showed. Both the Turkish side and our side have interest in this," Ushakov told reporters in Moscow.

The Russian official also said the delivery of the S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey is nearing completion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is heading to Ankara on Monday to attend a trilateral summit with Turkey and Iran on Syria.

Bilateral meetings are also expected on the occasion, Ushakov said, where military cooperation is an agenda for the meeting between Erdoğan and Putin.

"At the bilateral meeting, the leaders, in addition to Syria, will discuss some important questions of the implementation of the agreements that were reached in Moscow and cooperation in the military-technical domain," he said.

With Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, Putin will discuss the establishment of an alternative payment to SWIFT. The issue is gaining momentum as Russian oil companies show interest in Iranian oilfield development.

He added that the trilateral summit could pave way for a quadrilateral summit with participation of Turkey, Russia, Germany and France.

Turkey, Russia, and Iran are the guarantor countries that brokered a cease-fire in Syria in December 2016, leading to the Astana, Kazakhstan talks, which are running parallel to the Geneva peace talks.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on protesters with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.


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