ABU DHABI. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Russia and Turkey are negotiating the delivery of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system to Ankara, Rostec head Sergei Chemezov said.
"They have always been interested in procuring air defense systems, first the S-300 and now the S-400," Chemezov told reporters at the IDEX 2017 defense exhibition on Monday.
"The negotiations are in progress," he said.
"Our deliveries to Turkey have never been large, because Turkey has always been a NATO member country heavily influenced by the Americans and the Europeans and has mostly purchased their weapons," he said.
At present, Turkey is working on the financing of the possible deal, he said.
Alexander Fomin, a former head of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) and currently a deputy defense minister, told Interfax in November 2016 that the delivery of air defense systems to Turkey was on the agenda of Russian-Turkish military-technical cooperation.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in October 2016 that, while meeting in Istanbul, President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan had addressed Russia-Turkey military-technical cooperation and discussed possible deliveries of various types of air defense hardware if Turkey showed such interest.
The S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile system designed and manufactured by the Almaz-Antey Concern provides highly efficient protection from aircraft and strategic, cruise, intermediate and shorter range ballistic missiles amid active hostilities and electronic warfare.
The S-400 system guards Russia's military base in Hmeimim, Syria.