Turkey expects to get back the $1.4 billion allocated for the purchase of U.S. fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said this on Monday at a press conference in the Turkish capital following talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Regarding the F-35, Turkey has been excluded from the program. There is a figure of $1.4 billion that we paid. So our most natural right is to expect that money back. It would be helpful to complete this as soon as possible, he noted.

The topic of Turkey's participation in the F-35 fifth-generation fighter-bomber project remains one of the hot issues in Ankara-Washington relations. In 2017, Turkey signed a contract with Russia for the purchase of four divisions of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems worth $2.5 billion. In October 2019, Rosoboronexport announced that the contract to supply the systems had been fulfilled. Following Turkey's purchase of S-400 systems, the U.S. excluded it from the F-35 program, under which Ankara could receive about a hundred of these machines. Despite the cancellation of participation in the program, the two sides still agreed to hold consultations, which may help to somehow resolve the issue of Turkey's exclusion.