US makes offer to Turkey for sale of Patriot missiles

Baku. 3 January. REPORT.AZ/ The United States has formally made an offer to Turkey for the sale of multibillion dollar Patriot air defense systems in a bid to increase its pressure on the latter’s purchase of Russian-made S-400 systems, Report informs citing the Anadolu Agency.

The Agency, citing officials, informed that a U.S. delegation is holding talks with their counterparts at the Defense Industry, Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry. It said the US delegation submitted the offer for the sale of Patriots to Turkey but did not give details on the offer.

Notably, the installation of the S-400 anti-missile defense system in Turkey will start in October 2019. Kremlin said approval on US Patriot sales to Turkey will not affect S-400 supplies. US Defense Secretary James Mattis said on August 28 the United States was concerned about Turkey’s purchase of a Russian missile defense system that cannot be integrated into NATO.