Germany says Britain taking lead on possible Eurofighters for Turkey

istanbul — 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said connected Saturday that a task to perchance proviso Turkey with Eurofighter jets was an effort being driven by Britain and was successful the aboriginal stages.

"It is thing that volition proceed to develop, but is present being driven guardant from determination [Britain]," helium said erstwhile asked astir imaginable question connected the contented astatine a property league successful Istanbul with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

The Eurofighter Typhoon jets are built by a consortium of Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain, represented by companies Airbus AIR.PA, BAE Systems BAES.L and Leonardo LDOF.MI.

Asked astir the subject, a British authorities spokesperson said, "We proceed to marque advancement connected the imaginable export of Eurofighter Typhoon to Türkiye, an important NATO ally.

"When considering immoderate imaginable export of Eurofighter, we enactment intimately with the governments of Germany, Italy and Spain, successful enactment with the commitments each federation has made to enactment the others' exports," the spokesperson added.

Ankara said past twelvemonth it was successful talks with Britain and Spain to bargain Eurofighter Typhoons, though Germany objected to the idea. Since then, it has complained of a deficiency of advancement connected the contented and Erdogan alluded to Berlin's reluctance until now.

"We privation to permission down immoderate of the difficulties experienced successful the past successful the proviso of defence manufacture products and make our cooperation," Erdogan told reporters astatine the property league successful Istanbul.

On Thursday a Turkish defence ministry authoritative said Turkey had been conducting method enactment aimed astatine accelerating its planned acquisition of the jets.