The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced yesterday, Thursday, that its delegation will continue consultations with its American counterpart regarding Ankara's purchase of F-35 fighter jets.
The Ministry of Defense stated - in a statement - that the second round of consultations between the delegations of the two ministries took place last Wednesday in Washington, DC.
The statement added that Wednesday's meeting ended with the two parties agreeing to continue the consultations, and indicated that the two sides agreed to hold the next round in the Turkish capital, Ankara, next spring.
It is noteworthy that Washington did not hand over the F-35 fighters to Turkey after it provided Ankara with the Russian S-400 air defense system, after the United States refrained from providing the Turkish side with Patriot missile systems.
In the same context, the US ambassador to Ankara, Jeffrey Flick, made it clear that the US sale of F-16 aircraft to Turkey is not linked to the process of Sweden and Finland joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
This came in statements made by Flick during his meeting with a number of journalists in the Turkish capital, Ankara, yesterday, Thursday, during which he referred to the meeting that brought together last Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and his American counterpart, Anthony Blinken, in Washington, expressing his happiness at the high-level meetings between the two sides.