Ankara [Turkey], January 24 (ANI/Sputnik): Ankara and Washington will negotiate the deal on F-35 fighters in late January - early February in the United States, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Sunday.
"As for the F-35s, we asked [the US], 'we paid this much, how shall we go about the compensation.' The American side said they understood. We agreed to meet at the end of January - beginning of February. Our delegation will go there [to the US]. Six F-35s for Turkey are in a hangar. We are discussing what will happen to them," Akar was quoted as saying by the Turkish Milliyet newspaper.
On January 3, Akar said that Turkey and the United States were preparing to discuss the F-35 fighter jet program during a meeting in Washington in early 2022. On January 8, he confirmed that the preparations were well underway.
In 2019, the US suspended Turkey's participation in its F-35 program over Ankara's purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system and later completely removed it from the project. In October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Washington invited Ankara to buy F-16 fighter jets as a return for its investment in the F-35 program. (ANI/Sputnik)