Moscow and Ankara reached an agreement on the delivery of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Turkey and signed a contract, the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) said in a statement Tuesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said earlier Tuesday that Ankara had made the first payment for Russian S-400 systems. "Mr. Putin [President Vladimir Putin] and myself are determined on this issue," he told Turkish journalists aboard his presidential jet returning from a trip to Kazakhstan.
"The parties reached agreements on the delivery of the S-400 and signed a contract, Russia is ready to implement it," the statement said.
"The priority right to comment on the contract belongs to the foreign customer. It must be stressed that the delivery of this system to Turkey meets the geopolitical interests of the Russian Federation," the FSMTC said.
The purchase of the surface-to-air missile defense batteries, Ankara's most significant deal with a non-NATO supplier, comes with the Turkish government in the throes of a crisis in relations with several Western states.
Quoted by Russian state-owned TASS news agency, Vladimir Kozhin, Putin's adviser for military and technical cooperation, said the deal was fully in line with Moscow's strategic interests.
"For this reason, we fully understand the reactions of several Western countries which are trying to put pressure on Turkey."
