According to the Yeni Safak newspaper, a US delegation has tried to convince Turkey to give up on purchasing the Russian missile systems during the visit to Ankara earlier this week.

However, the Turkish authorities reportedly rejected the offer since it did not include a discount on the price set or a transfer of technology.

The Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday that the United States had submitted a proposal to sell Patriot missile systems to Ankara. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on December 18 the US State Department had approved a possible sale to Turkey of 80 Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missiles (GEM-T), 60 PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles and other related equipment for an estimated cost of $3.5 billion.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on December 19 that there were no connection between the possible acquisition by Turkey of the US Patriot missile systems and the purchase of Russia’s S-400 air defense systems, stressing that Moscow and Ankara will continue implementing the contract on S-400 deliveries.

The S-400 is a next-generation mobile missile system which can carry three different types of missiles capable of destroying a variety of aerial targets at a short-to-extremely-long range, from reconnaissance aircraft to ballistic missiles.

Source: Sputnik