Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the US suggested reimbursing Turkey for its contribution to the F-35 fighter jet program with F-16 fighters.

“We have made a $1.4bn payment for the F-35s and the US proposed to had such a proposal in return for these payments,” Erdogan said, adding, "we said let’s take whatever steps are needed to be taken to meet the defense needs of our country."

The Turkish president further noted that Turkey did not approach the US to buy F-16s and that the new F-16 jets can help his country develop its fleet.

Washington continuously requested that Turkey forego the S-400 

Turkey signed an agreement with Russia to import the latter's S-400 air defense system in December 2017 in Ankara. According to the deal, Turkey would receive a partial loan from Russia to purchase the systems.

The S-400s were first delivered in mid-July 2019, triggering a diplomatic crisis and US sanctions on Ankara. Washington requested that Turkey forego the S-400s in exchange for the US's Patriot air defense systems, threatening to delay or cancel F-35 sales to Turkey. 

Ankara has refused to give concessions regarding its intentions to buy a second batch of S-400 missile defense systems from Russia, stressing that such decisions are taken only by Turkey and that "nobody will be able to interfere in terms of what kind of defense systems" it acquires.