MOSCOW: Delivering the S-400 surface-to-air missile system to Turkey is a priority, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday at a meeting with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow.
“Before our countries stand serious tasks for strengthening our cooperation in the military industrial sphere,” Putin said in comments carried by state news agency TASS.
“First and foremost is the realisation of the contract for supplying the S-400 Triumph air defence missile system to Turkey,” Putin was quoted as saying.
Turkey, a Nato member state, has provoked the ire of the United States with its intention to purchase the advanced missile system from a Nato adversary.
Meanwhile, in a sign of strengthening ties between Russia and Turkey, bilateral trade has grown 15 per cent to reach $25 billion, Putin told Erdogan in the Kremlin.
Putin noted the Turk Stream pipeline, for transporting Russian-sourced natural gas to Turkey across the Black Sea, and Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu, which Russia is helping to construct.
“A bilateral year of culture of Russia and Turkey will begin this evening,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.
Russian state media reported that Putin and Erdogan would attend aTurkish production of the opera “Troy” at Moscow’s prestigious Bolshoi Theatre to begin the year of cultural exchange.
Turkey’s relations with Russian rival the United States have grown increasingly contentious, exacerbated by Turkey’s purchase of the advanced Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system.
“Among our topics the S-400 has an important place,” Erdogan said last week, referring to plans for his meeting with Putin. S-400 deliveries will start in July, he said. Putin noted developing defence industry ties in his opening comments at the meeting. He did not directly refer to the S-400. — DPA
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