Thu 28 October 2021:
Turkey’s foreign minister said Thursday that the US should either deliver the F-35 fighter jets it paid for, refund the money, or provide an alternative product.
“If the US does not want to resolve the F-35 issue, or if the Congress blocks it, Turkey will consider other options including purchasing (Russian-made) SU-35 or SU-57,” Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNN Turk in a televised interview.
“We supply our needs from different sources until we produce our own aircraft,” said Cavusoglu, adding this is the most basic right of any independent and sovereign country.
Turkey and the US agreed to continue talks to resolve the issue over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
According to a statement, representatives of the Turkish and US defense ministries held a meeting in the capital Ankara, in which they also discussed financial issues.
In 2019, Washington announced that it was taking Turkey out of the F-35 program over Ankara’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 air defense system.
Turkey, however, stressed that the S-400s would not be integrated into NATO systems and pose no threat to the alliance or its armaments.
Ankara also repeatedly proposed setting up a commission to clarify the issue.
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