Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Türkiye has not approached Moscow for permission to transfer its Russian-supplied S-400 air defense systems to another country. “There has been no such request to us,” he said at a news conference in New York on September 26 after the UN General Assembly’s high-level week, answering a question from a Turkish journalist.
Lavrov noted that the systems were delivered under a contract requiring strict compliance with end-user certificate obligations, and said Türkiye knows well that it cannot move them outside the country without Russia’s official consent.
Asked whether the systems could be transferred to a Gulf country, Lavrov said: “I will not comment. But there are such possibilities, only with our consent.” He said the country receiving the systems would have to be friendly toward Russia and responsible, “so that we know for certain that these systems will not go anywhere from that country.”
In July, Turkish daily Hürriyet reported that the S-400s could be transferred to a Gulf country, linking it to Ankara’s efforts to return to the US F-35 fighter jet program. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has spoken of “creative ideas” in talks with Washington on the S-400 issue.
The S-400 deal was signed in 2017 and Türkiye received the first systems in 2019, after which the US removed it from the F-35 program.