Russia, Turkey discussing joint weapons development

Russia is discussing with Turkey the issues of joint development of Russian military supplies and weapons, Dmitry Shugayev, the director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, has told Interfax.

“Negotiations are underway on the supply of modern Russian military products, as well as the joint development of armaments,” Shugayev said at the Dubai Airshow, when asked about the prospects of military-technical cooperation with Turkey and the possible signing of a new batch of S-400 air defense systems.

“Military-technical cooperation with the Republic of Turkey is developing steadily,” Shugayev said, noting that many countries in the region are interested in S-400 systems. Turkey has bought four divisions of S-400 air defense systems worth $ 2.5 billion from Russia. On October 23, 2019, Rosoboronexport announced that Russia had fulfilled the agreement ahead of schedule by supplying Turkey with all elements of the S-400 system, including missiles. On December 7, 2020, the head of Rostech, Sergei Chemezov, said that Turkey had paid for the systems. It was officially reported that Russia had offered Turkey to buy other weapons, in particular, fourth-generation Su-35 fighters.

The United States has imposed a number of sanctions on Turkey for acquiring Russian S-400 systems and removed them from the program of fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets.