Brussels. October 17th. INTERFAX - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Washington offered to supply Turkey with F-16 fighter jets in exchange for its earlier investments in the F-35 program, from which Ankara was excluded several years ago, Western media reported.
"We have made a payment of $1.4 billion for the F-35 aircraft. And the United States has an offer in exchange for this payment," the media quoted Erdogan as saying.
According to Erdogan, relevant negotiations are currently underway with Washington.
He noted that Turkey is working on the further development of its fleet "from the modernization of existing F-16s to new additional purchases of F-16s."
Earlier, Erdogan said that despite the payment of $ 1.4 billion, Ankara has not received American F-35 fighter-bombers.
