US sets aside $440 million to purchase F-35s ordered by Turkey

The US draft budget also foresees imposing sanctions on some shipping companies involved in laying pipelines being built by Russia & Turkey

The United States will set aside $440 million to buy back all F-35 stealth fighter jets ordered by NATO ally Turkey, Dünya newspaper reported, citing the U.S. draft budget for 2020.

U.S. legislators will create a special fund in the budget to purchase the aircraft, which will be transferred to the U.S. military, Dünya said on Tuesday.

Turkey has been suspended from a program for the production and purchase of the F-35s after it took delivery of S-400 air defence missiles from Russia earlier this year. Turkey still hopes to buy the aircraft, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said in an interview with state-run Anadolu news agency on Monday.

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