Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country will take care of itself if it does not receive F-16 fighter jets from the US.

The U.S. had earlier issued a formal notice to Turkey to exclude it from the program of supplying the latest F-35 fighter jets because of Ankara's purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems. Washington canceled a joint memorandum on the F-35 with Turkey, signing it with the seven remaining partners in the F-35 project - Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, Canada and Norway. Erdogan subsequently announced a U.S. offer to buy other fighters, but not the fifth but the fourth generation F-16s. The issue is to be negotiated in the U.S. Congress - the State Department is lobbying for it, convincing congressmen that the deal serves Washington's interests.

"Mr. Biden has promised me to resolve this issue (with the F-16s). I know Biden looks at it positively. We even had meetings with Republicans, and they said they would look at it positively, too. Now, if we don't get the result we want from the United States on the F-16 issue, what are we going to do? We will take care of ourselves.

You will give all kinds of support to Greece on the F-16s, you will set up bases there, but you will not give that support to a NATO friendly country like Turkey, a country that gives all kinds of support in NATO that is in the top five. In this case, Turkey has to take care of itself.

Otherwise, we have no problem with the United States," Erdogan told PBS television.