Turkiye is trying to return the S-400 air defense systems it bought from Russia. Such a move could allow Ankara to buy the F-35 fighter jets it has long wanted.

Axar.az reports that this claim was made by Bloomberg.

It was reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also raised the S-400 issue during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Turkmenistan last week.

Moscow and Ankara signed a $2.5 billion contract for the supply of S-400 systems in 2017. The United States tried to block the deal by excluding Turkiye from the F-35 program and imposing a sanctions regime known as CAATSA on several Turkish defense companies. The regulation stated that the supply of Russian air defense systems to Ankara “endangers the security of American military technology and personnel and provides significant resources to the Russian defense sector.” Nevertheless, the missile systems were delivered to Turkiye in the summer of 2019.