Russia to definitely give region more advanced armaments: Russian lawmaker

“A more advanced armament system from Russia will definitely appear in the region,” said Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament), Russian media outlets reported on Sunday.

Slutsky said that scenario will play out as part of expanded defense cooperation between Russia and regional countries.

“We will cooperate closely; volumes of such cooperation are huge. I am confident we should increase such cooperation at every possible way,” he said.

Slutsky said the procurement of the S-400 to Ankara was only a first step.

Turkey and Russia finalized the S-400 contract in December 2017, two years after the United States decided to withdraw its Patriot surface-to-air missile system from the Turkish border with Syria.

Soon afterwards, the US began warning Ankara against going ahead with the purchase, including by threatening to remove it from a multilateral program aimed at manufacturing the US’s F-35 warplanes. Several Turkish industrial giants are partaking in the program, and Turkish pilots have trained in the US to fly the aircraft, although that training has recently been halted over Ankara’s refusal to halt the Russian purchase.

The delivery of the Russian system began on Friday, with cargo planes carrying in several tractors and a loading vehicle from the S-400.

Late last month, a Russian official said the country was also ready to deliver the defense system to Iran.

The S-400 is an advanced air and missile defense system intended to engage incoming hostiles at ranges of up to 400 kilometers.