Erdogan: Turkey plans to buy more S-400 air defense systems from Russia
Ankara plans to buy additional S-400 air defense systems from Moscow, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview for CBS published Friday, TASS reported.
When asked by a journalist whether Ankara plans to buy more S-400 systems, the Turkish leader said: "In the future, nobody would be able to interfere in what defensive systems we buy, from which country and on which level. Nobody would be able to meddle in it. Only we would be able to make such decisions. Of course, yes, we will [buy the S-400]," Erdogan underscored.
"I explained everything to [US] President [Joe]. […] We made a decision to buy F-35 planes and we paid $1.4 billion," he said, adding that Ankara "still has not received the F-35."
"We also asked to sell us Patriot [air defense systems], but we were denied," Erdogan noted. "You don’t give me the Patriots, so I will probably buy defense systems from other countries. Nobody can interfere in that."
Moscow and Ankara inked a deal in 2017 on the delivery of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system to Turkey, thereby making it the first NATO member to purchase this air defense missile system from Russia.