Russia offers to sell SU-35 fighter jets to Turkey after US removes Ankara from F-35 programme
- Offer came a day after US government said Turkey was being kicked out of the stealth fighter programme because it was buying Russian missile systems
Turkey lambasted an “unfair” US move to exclude the country from Nato’s F-35 stealth fighter jet programme over Ankara’s controversial purchase of a Russian missile defence system.
“This one-sided step neither complies with the spirit of alliance nor is it based on legitimate reasons,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
“It is unfair to remove Turkey, one of the partners in the F-35 programme,” the ministry said, as it dismissed claims the Russian S-400 system would be a danger to the F-35s.
Sergei Chemezov, head of Russia’s state-controlled Rostech corporation, said in a statement on Thursday that Moscow would be willing to sell its SU-35 fighter jets to Turkey if Ankara “expresses interest”.
Turkey has ordered more than 100 of the F-35 fighter jets, spending US$1.4 billion while its defence industry has invested significant sums into the warplanes’ production.