Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will discuss the purchase of Russian-made military hardware, including S-400 (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) air defense missile systems, on March 9-10 in Moscow, Turkish presidential adviser Ilnur Cevik said.
Cevik made this statement in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV Channel.
“Economic issues, in particular, trade cooperation, interaction in the construction of a nuclear power plant and the sale of S-400 air defense missile systems, will be the first on the agenda,” the Turkish presidential adviser said.
According to Cevik, Turkey is unlikely to face problems within NATO if it purchases Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile systems as “many NATO member-states are using Russian-made weapons and defense systems too.”
Earlier, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the information reported by Turkey’s NTV Channel and said that Erdogan would arrive in Russia on March 9-10.
The NTV Channel reported that the two presidents would hold a private meeting. A meeting of the Russian-Turkish High-Level Cooperation Council will be conducted as well. The sides will discuss a wide range of issues, including the delivery of S-400 air defense missile systems to Turkey.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said earlier that the two presidents might discuss the delivery of S-400 systems.
