Kremlin denies Putin discussed issue with Erdogan during a meeting last week, as Ankara considers how best to bolster its fleet of aging aircraft
Turkey is looking to return the S-400 air defense systems that it purchased from Russia in 2017, hoping that doing so will clear the way for it to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the United States, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, citing Turkish and Russian officials familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, when the pair met on the sidelines of a summit in Turkmenistan last week.
Ankara is also hoping to receive a refund if it returns the S-400 systems, Bloomberg reported, which could be granted in the form of discounted oil and natural gas imports from Russia.
The Kremlin denied the contents of the report on Thursday, saying that the matter of returning the S-400 systems “was not on the agenda” when the two leaders met. Turkey declined to comment on the report.
Turkey has expressed interest in buying a number of F-35 jets from the US, but it is currently barred from doing so due to its 2017 purchase of Russian-made S-400 air defense systems.
Last week, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said that the countries were holding “fruitful” talks on the potential sale of the advanced stealth fighters.
“As laid out in US law, Turkey must no longer operate nor possess the S-400 system to return to the F-35 program,” Barrack wrote on X.
“The positive relationship between President Trump and President Erdogan has created a new atmosphere of cooperation, which has led to the most fruitful conversations we have had on this topic in nearly a decade,” he said.
“Our hope is that these talks will yield a breakthrough in the coming months that meets both the security requirements of the United States and Turkey,” Barrack added.
During US President Donald Trump’s first term, the US removed Turkey, a NATO ally, from its flagship F-35 fighter jet program, after Ankara purchased the S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia. US officials worried that Turkey’s use of the missile defense system could be used to gather data on the capabilities of the F-35 and that the information could end up in Russian hands.
Israel has expressed concern in the past over the potential sale of the advanced F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and other nearby countries, as it is anxious to preserve its qualitative military edge in the region.
Today, Israel is the only country in the Middle East with F-35s in its arsenal, currently operating 45 of the aircraft with another 30 units on order.
However, Trump recently announced the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia, sparking worry in the Jewish state. US officials and defense experts have told Reuters that the jets to be sold to the Saudis will be less advanced than those used by the IDF.
In recent months, Turkey, which has the NATO alliance’s second-largest military, has aimed to leverage its best relations with the West in years to add to its aging fleet 40 Eurofighter Typhoons and later also US-made F-35 jets.
Ankara has seen success in its bid for new Eurofighter Typhoons, as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in October that the UK would sell Turkey 20 new Eurofighters. Until those are ready, Turkey said it will acquire 12 Eurofighters from Qatar and 12 from Oman to bolster its fleet.
Erdogan is one of the world’s most outspoken critics of Israel, often accusing Israel of genocide over the past two years of war, comparing it to Nazi Germany and likening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
He has also cozied up to Hamas over the years, hosting top officials and calling the terror group “freedom fighters.”
