Ankara, Moscow Reach Agreement on New S-400 Batch

“The parties have concluded an agreement in principle on the supply of the second batch. The roadmap of the deal includes the transfer of [relevant] technologies and joint production [of the system],” the head of Turkey’s Defense Industry Ismail Demir said in an exclusive interview with Turkish-language NTV television news network on Monday.

He added that Turkey and Russia are continuing negotiations on further implementation of the contract on the delivery of S-400 air defense systems.

“As we have always said, if some system is purchased, this is done for its operation. That’s it. As for putting the systems into operation, the world has passed through a certain stage [as a result of the pandemic] and the pace of work has slowed down while trips have been limited. All this has affected the deployment of S-400s,” the senior Turkish military official noted, commenting on the discussion ongoing in Turkey that S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems may not be activated and put on combat duty..