Turkish officials said on July 26 that France is to deploy a French and Italian-made SAMP-T air defence battery along Turkey's southern border.

The announcement came as US senators debated what sanctions Turkey should face for going ahead with an acquisition of advanced Russian S-400 missile defence systems. For now, it looks like the sanctions question has been placed on the backburner, but the Turkish defence ministry has said that the first shipment of S-400s has been completed and the second shipment would commence soon. As a consequence of its planned S-400 deployment Turkey has already had its participation in the F-35 stealth fighter jet programme suspended indefinitely, and US officials have said no F-35s will be delivered to Turkey because their performance data could be exposed by S-400 tracking. In another development on July 25, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Turkey not to make its S-400s operational.

In June 2016, Italy deployed a SAMP/T system to southern Turkey as part of a Nato plan to reinforce Turkey’s border against a possible Syrian missile threat. The latest deployment may ease worries among observers that fear Ankara’s Nato membership could be called into question by the S-400 and F-35 rows.

Turkish officials have said that negotiations with the US for the supply of American Patriot missiles were continuing. However, such talks have been failing for almost a decade, with the US unwilling to give in to Turkish demands for substantial technology transfers.