KUBINKA, Moscow region. Aug 15 (Interfax) - The political situation has negatively affected certain aspects of cooperation with foreign partners, among them Turkey, yet the work continues as agreed, head of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) Dmitry Shugayev told Interfax.
"The complicated political situation that has taken shape obviously has a negative effect on certain aspects of interaction between the Russian side and its partners," Shugayev said at the Army 2023 forum in response to a question on whether talks with Turkey on the second contract for S-400 air defense missile systems had been frozen.
"Nevertheless, military-technical cooperation with Turkey is developing as agreed with the two presidents. We are planning further work with Turkish partners on a mutually advantageous basis," Shugayev said.
Bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey are actively developing, including in military-technical cooperation, he said.
As Interfax reported earlier, Turkey bought four battalion sets of Russia's S-400 air defense missile systems for $2.5 billion. On October 23, 2019, Rosoboronexport said Russia had fulfilled the contract ahead of time and supplied all elements of S-400 systems, including missiles, to Turkey. On December 7, 2020, Rostec head Sergei Chemezov said Turkey had paid for the delivered S-400 systems. Turkey successfully test-fired S-400 missiles in its territory in mid-October 2020.
In November 2021, Rosoboronexport head Alexander Mikheyev told Interfax that Russia had started to localize production of S-400 elements in Turkey. The current contract envisages both the delivery of air defense systems and partial localization of S-400 production, he said.
Earlier reports said that Ankara was planning to purchase an additional batch of S-400 systems. "We have no doubt that we will buy a second regimental set of S-400 systems from Russia," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on August 29, 2021. The Rosoboronexport head said back then that a new contract might be signed before the end of the year.