Erdogan says aims to persuade US to not exclude Turkey from F-35 fighter deal

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said he hoped to persuade the United States to not exclude Turkey from participating in the F-35 fighter jet programme, ahead of his meeting with President Donald Trump later this month.

Erdogan is to meet Trump on the margins of G20 summit in Japan on June 28-29. "But before there, we would like to discuss this issue (on the F-35 programme) by telephone and reverse it from the current situation back to where we started," Erdogan said in a televised speech.

Washington has given Turkey until the end of July to abandon its purchase of a major Russian missile defence system, which it considers incompatible with Ankara's participation in America's construction of its F-35 stealth fighters.