Ankara: Donald Trump is going to be the President of the United States of America very soon and world has started to prepare for it. Turkey, which had been trying its best to get a deal for modernising its F-16 aircraft deal at a huge cost of $23 billion (total package cost) has now cancelled the order for the seventy-nine modernization kits, meant for upgrading its existing F-16 fleet. Here’s all the details you need to know about why Turkey cancelled the deal.
“An initial payment has been made for the purchase of F-16 Block-70. $1.4 billion has been paid. With this, we will buy 40 F-16 Block-70 Vipers and we were going to buy 79 modernization kits,” Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler was quoted saying in a report by Navbharat Times.
“We abandoned this 79. This is why we abandoned it: our Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) facilities are capable of carrying out this modernization on their own, so we deferred to them”, Guler said on the cancellation of the modernisation plan.
Minister Guler has announced that Turkey plans to become a part of the US F-35 scheme again, with ambitions of obtaining 40 additional F-35 jets. The United States, though, had ousted Turkey from the F-35 program earlier because of Turkey’s choice to purchase S-400 missile systems from Russia but things might change in the future.
Erdogan, Putin hold phone talks on regional
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, discussing bilateral relations and regional and global issues, according to Erdogan’s office. During the phone talk, Erdogan said on Sunday that the two sides aimed to enhance cooperation in various fields, particularly the expansion of bilateral trade volume, Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the Turkish President pledged that his country will continue to contribute to the peace process. Turkey, which maintains good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, has been acting as a mediator between the two countries since their conflict broke out in February 2022.
On Wednesday, Erdogan said the US decision to allow Kyiv to deploy its long-range missiles for strikes inside Russia is “a move aimed at fueling the war”. “It appears to be a move aimed at fueling the war, ensuring it does not end, and even encouraging its spread,” Erdogan told reporters on his flight back to Turkey from Brazil, where he attended the G20 summit, according to a report by semi-official Anadolu Agency.
(With inputs from agencies)
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