Spokesman Anthony Semmelroth explained that this file “closed in September of last year”, following meetings held in Ankara on Wednesday.
The Turkish capital hosted bilateral meetings with US officials at the request of the Turkish Ministry of Defense, to discuss ways to find a solution to the crisis of removing Ankara from the F-35 program.
Semmelroth said that although the United States closed the file by removing Turkey from the program, this “will not prevent the completion of meetings with the Turkish side in the coming months.”
Ankara ordered more than 100 of the F-35 stealth fighters, and was involved in making parts for them.
But it was excluded from the program in 2019, after it bought the Russian S-400 air defense system, which Washington says threatens the F-35 fighter jets.
Turkey said that its exclusion from the program was unfair, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his hope for positive developments in this regard during the rule of his American counterpart Joe Biden.
Despite the exclusion of Turkey from the program and the imposition of sanctions on the Turkish defense industry in December last year, the US Department of Defense said it would continue to rely on Turkish contractors to obtain key components in the F-35 aircraft.
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