US ready to bring Türkiye back to F-35 project if Russian S-400 problem tackled - Nuland

The United States would be happy to welcome Türkiye into the F-35 family.

US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said this in an interview with CNN Türk.

“We were negotiating the sale of the Patriot complex, and while the negotiations were going on, Türkiye went in a different direction. That's why we had some negotiations today. Frankly, if we can solve the Russian S-400 problem, that's what we want to do. The US would be happy to bring Türkiye back into the F-35 family. But first, we have to solve the other problem, and while we solve it, we also have to ensure that Türkiye has strong air defense,” Nuland said in an interview.

According to her, the United States has been proposing to talk about strengthening Türkiye’s air defense for many years, both before the purchase of the S-400 and now.

“As you know, this is a complex issue. Nowadays, everyone needs air defense. We see this all over the world. But if we can still solve this problem, the CAATSA problem will go away and we can get back to talking about the F-35,” she said.