France is willing to consider a possible sale of the Franco-Italian SAMP-T air-defense system to Türkiye following years of opposition, clearing the way for more substantive talks with Ankara, a report said on Monday.
The shift in position followed talks between French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a summit on June 25 ahead of this week's NATO summit in Türkiye, although negotiations remain at an early stage.
That's according to a Reuters report that cited five sources familiar with the matter. "Before, there was a clear lack of openness, now there is openness," said one source.
The French presidency said it did not confirm the information, pointing to "significant inaccuracies." It did not say what the inaccuracies were and declined to explain them.
France's Foreign Ministry declined to comment and referred to the French presidency, as did the Defense Ministry. Türkiye's Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
The report comes a week after Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said Türkiye was "evaluating all options" to boost its air defenses, including the potential purchase of Patriot systems from Washington or SAMP-T systems.
Güler said Ankara remained open to cooperation involving technology transfer and joint production. Technical and political talks with the relevant countries are taking place "from time to time," he added.
The sources said that Paris had set aside some political reservations that had previously blocked progress.
Türkiye, France and Italy launched cooperation on a possible long-range air-defense program in 2017 to 2018, including studies into codevelopment and coproduction.
However, the project stalled as ties between Ankara and Paris deteriorated over Syria, Libya and disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean involving Greece and Greek Cyprus.
The SAMP-T, also known as Mamba, is produced by the Franco-Italian Eurosam consortium, bringing together MBDA France, MBDA Italy and Thales.
The system can track dozens of targets simultaneously, intercept multiple threats at once and is the only European-made system that claims to be able to intercept ballistic missiles.
Often described as Europe's closest counterpart to the U.S. Patriot system, it divides analysts on its efficiency, who point to its lack of combat use over the years.
Türkiye has NATO's second-largest army and has for years been ramping up investments as it seeks to have its own fully fledged missile defenses. It is meanwhile producing components for its integrated, multilayered "Steel Dome" air defense system.
One source added that Meloni and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed the matter during a call on July 3.
A Turkish official said the process had been unable to move forward since 2020 due to tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean and European Union sanctions.
"Now, it appears there is political will on all three sides (Türkiye, Italy, France) for this process to advance," the official said.
Beyond Paris and Rome, the system has only been exported to Singapore, although it has been transferred to Ukraine in recent years and France deployed it to help the United Arab Emirates (UAE) defend itself against Iranian missile attacks this year.
Italy sent the system to Türkiye in mid-June as part of NATO defense planning.
Any deal would likely center around the new generation of the system, which is being rolled out to the French and Italian militaries.
Erdoğan and Macron will hold a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit to discuss bilateral issues, officials said.
While Italy has long been in favor of sharing the SAMP-T with Türkiye to deepen defense industry cooperation, Turkish officials have for years privately and publicly regarded France as the principal political obstacle to the program.
Momentum has returned over the past year as Ankara has intensified efforts to strengthen its missile defense capabilities amid regional instability and NATO allies have reassessed defense cooperation and capability needs.
The sources said that France's new openness should not be interpreted as approval for a sale.
"This is just the beginning. It will be a long journey if France agrees to sell it," said Murat Aslan, defense and security researcher at Türkiye's Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA).
