Russia and Turkey may soon sign a contract on the delivery of a second set of S-400 air defense missiles, the head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev, said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV on Monday.
“I believe we will conclude the second contract in the foreseeable future. It implies Turkish partners’ certain participation in the production process,” Shugayev said, according to the Russian TASS news agency.
The talks were on an additional batch of equipment, he said. “We are at quite a serious stage, and all the technical issues have been settled and so on.”
According to Shugayev, this will be mutually advantageous cooperation without any damage to the Russian side. “We are looking out for our national interests,” he stated.
The first S-400 air defense missile system is already in Turkish territory, and specialists have been trained to operate it, Shugayev said. “The question now is when Turkey makes a decision on placing them on combat duty. This is their priority.”
Russia announced in September 2017 that it had signed a $2.5 billion deal with Turkey on the delivery of an S-400 anti-aircraft missile system to Ankara. The deal also envisaged the partial transfer of production technology to the Turkish side.
Turkey is the first NATO member state to purchase such an air defense missile system from Russia. The deliveries of S-400 launchers to Turkey began on July 12, 2019.
The United States and NATO have attempting to deter Turkey from purchasing Russia’s S-400 missile systems. Washington warned on many occasions that it might impose sanctions on Turkey if Ankara were to press ahead with the S-400 deal.