There were some unexpected, surprising agreed-upon initiatives to come out of Wednesday's Sochi summit between Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan which will be sure to catch the attention of the West, given Turkey comprises NATO's second largest army - also given the prior S-400 and F-35 standoff with Washington.
As we detailed earlier, it was the two leaders' first face-to-face summit in a year-and-a-half, also as tensions soar between the two countries on Syria policy. Their meeting in Sochi was lengthy, lasting about three hours. A subsequent statement from the Turkish side indicated Russia agreed to jointly produce jet engines, warships and submarines - a huge development revealed in state-run Anadolu Agency.
While initial Russia press release summaries of the meeting were vague, President Erdogan divulged some of the key details discussed with Putin to Turkish journalists accompanying him. "For example, we discussed steps to build a second and third nuclear reactor," he said, a reference to the Russian-built Akkuyu nuclear reactor in southern Turkey.
And then Erdogan said this, crucially at a moment the Lockheed F-35 program is still blocked due to the S-400 issue: "We even comprehensively talked about the steps we can take on [building] jet engines."
"Another topic, we can take joint steps in the construction of [war]ships. We will, inshallah, even take joint steps on submarines," Erdogan described, even bringing up the prospect of space exploration cooperation.
"Putin would like to work with Turkey in space. Our teams will study this issue and we will create a roadmap," he told reporters. "There is even a further offer; by creating one platform on the sea and another on land, we can jointly work on rocket firing tests to space."
Erdogan further doubled down on prior statements saying US sanctions wouldn't deter Turkey from acquiring a second round of S-400 anti-air defense systems from Russia. He said in a Sunday CBS News interview that "Nobody can interfere" with issues of Turkey's sovereign defense. "We are the only ones to make such decisions."
When pressed specifically on whether Turkey plans to move forward on the next round of S-400 delivery, Erdogan responded with a blunt, "of course".
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