‘Military ties deepening’: Putin says Russia & Turkey will work jointly on ‘promising new weapons’

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his government would work to strengthen military cooperation with Turkey and that talks to develop new weapons with Ankara were already underway.

Putin met with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts in Ankara on Monday, to discuss resolving the conflict in Syria. He found time to discuss bilateral cooperation and trade with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“Military-technical ties are deepening – a contract is being implemented to equip the Turkish armed forces with S-400 Triumph systems,” Putin said at a press conference after the summit, adding that “Negotiations are underway on promising new weapons.”

While it remains to be seen what new weapons might be in the pipeline, Ankara and Moscow have an established relationship when it comes to military cooperation. Most recently, Turkey purchased Russian S-400 air defense missiles – to the vocal objections of Washington, who scrapped a planned sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey in response.

Despite the hostility provoked by that sale, Turkey signaled earlier this month that it would like to buy more S-400s in the event Washington refused to sell any of its Patriot missile batteries. Erdogan is expected to discuss the matter with US President Donald Trump in the coming weeks.

On a trip to Moscow in late August, Erdogan also signaled that Turkey might have plans to buy Russian aircraft. When asked whether Ankara would go ahead with such purchases, the head of state responded: “Why not? We didn’t come here for nothing.”

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