Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his Defense Minister Hulusi Akar is in talks with the American side regarding the purchase and modernization of F-16 fighters, and that a positive phase continues in this regard.
This came in a statement to reporters on the plane during his return to Turkey, after his participation in the emergency summit of the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization "NATO".
Erdogan indicated that there are positive approaches regarding the modernization and purchase of new F-16 fighters.
"(US President Joe) Biden said to me, 'I will present my positive approach to Congress on this issue and I will follow up on it. If we reach a conclusion in this direction, we will have the opportunity to quickly finish the F-16 procurement and modernization process. I hope so'," he added.
It is noteworthy that Turkey submitted a request to the United States to purchase F-16 fighters and equipment to upgrade fighters of the same type within its air force.
On October 17, President Erdogan indicated that the F-16 fighter file is related to the F-35 fighters, and that the offer in this regard was issued by the US side, not Turkey.
And he indicated that the issue that concerns Turkey is that it paid one billion and 400 million dollars for the "F-35" fighter project.
It is noteworthy that Washington did not hand over F-35 fighters to Turkey, under the pretext of providing Ankara with the Russian S-400 air defense system, after the United States refrained from providing Turkey with Patriot systems.
On this system, Erdogan commented, "We said at the beginning that the matter is over, and today we are at the same point."