ANKARA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has proposed the joint production of S-500 anti-ballistic missile systems with Russia, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Wednesday.
During an televised interview with broadcaster 24 TV, Erdogan said he already made an offer on joint production to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
"Russia has given us a loan for the S-400 on very reasonable terms. In the second and third stages, we will proceed to joint production. Maybe we will co-produce S-500," he said.
Erdogan slammed NATO allies over their unwillingness to sell arms to his country, noting Turkey was determined to deploy the S-400 missile systems within its territory despite of opposition from the United States.
Turkey and Russia inked an agreement worth 2.5 billion U.S. dollars on the purchase of two S-400 surface-to-air defense systems, prompting NATO allies to warn Turkey of unspecified consequences.
The first S-400 system is expected to be delivered in early 2019.
The S-500s are reportedly still under development and believed to be deployed by 2020 as a supplement with a longer range to the existing S-400 surface-to-air missiles.?