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U.S. Representative Mike Turner stated Wednesday that the details shared with Congress regarding Türkiye's S-400 missile system and the country's potential return to the F-35 fighter jet program "appear to be promising."
"All the details that are shared with us, the details do appear to be promising, yes. With regard to S-400 and F-35," Turner said.
Turner made these remarks during a press conference call hosted by a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation on Wednesday morning from the sidelines of the 2026 NATO summit in Ankara.
The delegation included Senator Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Senators Chris Coons, D-Del., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D.
During the summit, the delegation scheduled meetings with various heads of state and foreign officials, including NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Afterward, Senators Shaheen and Durbin, along with Rep. Turner, were set to travel to Budapest for meetings with the new Hungarian government and civil society leaders.
When Reuters' Humeyra Pamuk asked if Congress could block the Trump administration from lifting CAATSA sanctions on Türkiye—and whether lawmakers would accept transferring the S-400 systems to a third country since the NDAA still bars F-35 sales while Türkiye possesses them—Shaheen responded by pointing to her own role in creating the original restriction.
"I wrote the legislation that prohibited Türkiye from the F-35 program because of their acquisition of the S-400. If there is an acceptable way with the S-400 and the threat that it poses to the technology in the F-35, and there is satisfactory agreement on the common parties about that, I think having Türkiye back to the F-35 program would be a positive development both for Türkiye and the U.S. But we still have questions to answer with respect to what is being proposed. And we haven't gotten those answers, so we'll wait and see what happens," Shaheen said.
Asked by the Washington Post's Michael Birnbaum whether a potential S-400 transfer to a third country was the main obstacle to F-35 sales or whether other political issues were also involved, Shaheen said the core issue remained the same.
"I think I already answered your first question with respect to the F-35s. We still have to see what the details are, but the issue was S-400s and the threat that it would pose to our technology, to F-35s, and giving Russia access to that. So, we'll have to see how that's going to be handled. We still have to wait for details," she said.
When asked by The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Malsin whether either administration had shared specific proposals to resolve the S-400 issue or suggested any language for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Shaheen said no such details had been made available.
"We haven't seen the details of what's being proposed. I'm not aware that any language has been developed that would be included in the NDAA. That may be possible, but at this point, we just don't know what's being proposed. I don't have details (so) I think we have to wait," she said.
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