No delays in Russian S-400 missiles delivery to Turkey: Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that there have been no delays in the delivery of Russian S-400 air defense missiles to his country.

He made the remarks at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 Osaka summit in Japan, according to an official transcript of the conversation published on the Kremlin website.

"The S-400 delivery -- we continue watching over this process in accordance with our agreement reached in Dushanbe," Erdogan told Putin, calling joint missile production and technology transfer a priority of bilateral cooperation.

The supplies of the S-400 missiles to Turkey will begin in the first half of July, Erdogan said earlier this month after returning from the summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia held in Tajikistan's Dushanbe.

The United States repeatedly warned that it will cut off Turkey's purchase of F-35 fighters if Ankara goes ahead with plans to buy the Russian S-400 missiles.

Pentagon announced in June that it would halt F-35 fighter training for Turkish pilots, and all Turkish trainees in the program must leave the country by July 31.

The S-400 air defense missile system is considered the most advanced of its kind in Russia, capable of destroying targets at a distance of up to 400 km and a height of up to 30 km.