Hulusi Akar, Chairman of the National Defense Commission of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and former Minister of Defense, stated that Ankara expects serious progress in solving the problem with the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems purchased from Moscow and in the republic's soon return to the fifth-generation F-35 fighter production program.
Modern.az reports that he made this statement after talks with American officials within the framework of the visit of parliamentary commission members to the US.
Hulusi Akar strongly denied the claims about the sale of S-400 systems to the UAE or another country. The chairman of the commission noted that the parties discussed possibilities for an agreement to quickly resolve the problem, and positive changes are expected in this matter in the near future. The former minister emphasized that American partners also gave positive feedback to Turkey based on the information they received through their channels.
According to Akar's assessment, the resolution of the S-400 issue will ultimately create a positive turning point in military partnership:
"The Russian systems had caused Turkey's participation in the F-35 program to be suspended. As soon as this problem is resolved, the program will be directly restored."
It should be recalled that Turkey purchased four divisions of S-400 air defense systems from Russia in 2017 for 2.5 billion dollars, and the delivery was completed in 2019. It was due to this purchase that official Ankara was removed from the F-35 program in 2019 under the US "Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act" (CAATSA). Last week, although reports were spread in the Turkish press about the resale of S-400 systems to one of the Persian Gulf countries, especially the UAE or Qatar, official Ankara did not confirm these claims.
