Turkey 🇹🇷 set to missile 🚀 defence system from Russia

Turkey is set to buy Russian-owned missile defence systems, marking the NATO member's first major weapons purchase from Russia.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president, announced on Tuesday that "signatures have been made" for the acquisition of the S-400 surface-to-air missile defence equipment.

Anticipating potential concern among Turkey's fellow NATO members over the deal, Erdogan said Turkey would continue to "make the decisions about our own independence ourselves".

NATO's policy states that: "Interoperability does not necessarily require common military equipment", but instead, "what is important is that the equipment can share common facilities, and is able to interact, connect and communicate, exchange data and services with other equipment".

The Turkish-Russian contract is a new sign of better relations between the two countries since a reconciliation deal was signed last year following the 2015 shooting down by the Turkish military of a Russian fighter jet over the Syrian border.

UCJ, UNILORIN.