Turkey, Russia to sign deal on S-400 in coming days

Turkey and Russia are set to sign an agreement on S-400 missile defense systems in the upcoming days, a Russian official said on Thursday.

Speaking to journalists in Moscow, Vladimir Kojin, military and technical cooperation assistant to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the issue was handled smoothly with Turkey.

Earlier this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had said there were no problems with the deal which would see Turkey purchasing the defense systems from Russia.

Kojin said the delivery would be made in late 2019 or early 2020.

"All the issues have been resolved and I discussed this theme while literally entering this hall," said Kojin, according to Russia's official Tass News Agency.

"The contract is entering the implementation stage actually in the coming days. A part of the contract will be paid for by the Turkish side and the other part will be covered by a loan granted by the Russian side," Kojin said.

The S-400 is Russia’s most advanced long-range anti-aircraft missile system and can carry three types of missiles capable of destroying targets including ballistic and cruise missiles.

The system can track and engage up to 300 targets at a time and has an altitude ceiling of 27 kilometers (17 miles).