Putin and Erdogan expressed a mutual desire to cooperate in the defence industry
By Ali Bakeer,
On August 27, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid a one-day visit to Moscow to discuss bilateral relations and the latest developments in Syria with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
On the same day, the two leaders attended the inauguration ceremony of the annual Russian aviation and space fair (MAKS-2019) and expressed a mutual desire to cooperate in the aviation, space technology, and the defence industry sectors.
While touring in the fair, Putin seized the opportunity to introduce the latest achievements in Russia’s aviation and space industry to his guest, including the Su-35 fighter jet, the Ka-52 military helicopter, the Mi-38 heavy helicopter and the Ka-62 medium helicopter among others.
Erdogan thus became the first foreign leader to see Russia’s most advanced fighter aircraft the Su-57.
While inspecting the cockpit of the fifth-generation fighter, Putin pitched its technical capabilities to his Turkish guest.
The Turkish president made an off-handed comment about buying the Su-57. Putin who was standing near him paused for a moment before smiling and saying: “You can buy.”
Two days later, the Turkish President said that Turkey will ensure it is able to buy and produce fighter jets and that Russian Su-35s and Su-57s are a possible alternative to US planes.
These developments came after the US denied Turkey the right to receive its F-35s or buy new ones, in addition to suspending its participation in the production of the most advanced multi-role stealth warplane in the world.
Turkey has already paid $1.4 billion to buy F-35 planes from the US. There are eight Turkish defence companies participating in the production process where they are responsible for 937 parts in the F-35, with 400 of those sole-sourced from Turkish firms.
Back in July, US President Donald Trump said that his country will not sell Turkey advanced F-35 fighter jets because Ankara bought the powerful Russian surface-to-air system.
The Pentagon started the process of kicking Ankara out from the F-35 programme claiming that the S-400 is incompatible with NATO’s air defence systems and will compromise the operations of the F-35 fighter jets.
Since then, the US has maintained that Ankara cannot get both the S-400 and the F-35 at the same time.
But Trump signalled a reluctance to punish Turkey with major sanctions over its acquisition which leaves the door open to possible compromises in this issue in the future.
While Ankara is trying to use the Russian card to show the US that it has another option, Moscow has a different goal.
Playing on the Turkey-US rift with the hope of expanding the discord between the two NATO allies, Russia approached Turkish officials and expressed its willingness to sell Ankara its most advanced fighter jets.
Despite showing interest in Russia’s Su-35 and Su-57, Ankara will not rush into buying any of those fighter jets. The fact that Turkey didn’t officially submit any request to the Russian authorities until now supports such a claim. There are several reasons that can explain why Ankara wouldn’t take a similar step when it comes to this situation.
Kicking Turkey completely out of the F-35 programme is a long process that is expected to extend until March 2020 – one month before the anticipated deployment of the S-400.
