Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles has been completed, but Ankara is discussing a further agreement with a European consortium to develop its own missile defense system, Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said.
NATO member Turkey's decision to buy the S-400s from Moscow was considered offensive by some of its Western allies.
The agreement also raised concerns that these weapons could not be integrated into NATO defense.
A senior NATO commander told Reuters last week that the alliance would continue to pressure Ankara to buy weapons that could work with NATO systems, adding that no S-400s had been delivered to Turkey so far.
"It's over, the S-400 missiles have been bought. "Now the rest is just details," Tsanikli told television from Kerasunda (Giresun) in the Black Sea. But Turkey is not satisfied with just the S-400 deal, he added.
"We are also making preliminary agreements with the EUROSAM consortium to have this technology to develop, produce and use our own resources for air defense systems," said Canikli, referring to a joint Franco-Italian defense program.
In Brussels on Wednesday, Canikli signed a statement of intent with France and Italy to boost co-operation on defense programs involving missile technology, sources at the Turkish Defense Ministry said last week.
According to these sources, as a first step, EUROSAM and Turkish companies will consider a system based on the SAMP-T missile system produced by EUROSAM.