Turkey and Russia will sign a new contract for the purchase of additional S-400 missiles in the near future, the head of Russia's Rosoboronexport arms exporter said on Monday.

“The consultations continue and are at the final stage. We will start formalizing a contract with our partners soon,” TASS cited the head of Russia’s Rosoboronexport arms exporter as saying.

In late 2017, the president of Turkey and Russian officials signed a US$2.5 billion agreement for the delivery of the S-400 air defense system units.

The US Secretary of State raised concerns over the deal,[130] but President Erdogan and other Turkish officials rejected the US threat of sanctions, citing that the US refused to sell the upgraded MIM-104 Patriot to Turkey. Turkey received its first installment of the Russian S-400 missile defense system on 12 July 2019.

The US threatened Turkey with CAATSA sanctions and on 17 July suspended Turkey from the F-35 program, stating “F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence-collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities”.

4 batteries consisting of 36 fire units, and 192+ missiles were delivered to Turkey. (ILKHA)