The Ankara-Washington row over F-35 fighter jets would be high on the agenda of the upcoming talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart Joe Biden in Glasgow, during the global climate summit, Bloomberg reports.
Discussions will focus on how the US can reimburse $1.4 billion Turkey paid to procure F-35 fighter jets after Washington had offered Ankara to purchase F-16 jets after excluding Turkey from the F-35 Lightning II Programme.
According to Erdogan, they’ll have to discuss what to do as far as this payment is concerned and what the plan will be for repayment of this sum from the US.
The US Defense Department has confirmed consultations with Turkey on its order for F-35s but denied making any financing offer over Ankara’s request to purchase F-16s after Erdogan said that may be a way of returning the money they invested.
Erdogan announcement comes in light of Turkish Presidency of Defence Industries chief Ismail Demir’s remarks earlier this month that if the US freezes the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, Ankara could buy Russia’s Su-35 and Su-57 fighters.
Demir pointed out that Ankara will use any means necessary to ensure the security of Turkey.
Washington expelled Ankara from F-35 program for purchasing and co-developing the jets after it bought Russian S-400 air-defense missiles, claiming that the delivery of the F-35 jets to the US NATO partner in July 2019 was put off over “security concerns” since Turkey could leak military secrets to Russia.
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