Germany says Britain taking lead on possible Eurofighters for Turkey

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that a project to possibly supply Turkey with Eurofighter jets was an effort being driven by Britain and was in the early stages.

"It is something that will continue to develop, but is now being driven forward from there (Britain)," he said when asked about potential movement on the issue at a press conference in Istanbul with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

The Eurofighter Typhoon jets are built by a consortium of Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain, represented by companies Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.

Asked about the subject, a British government spokesperson said, "We continue to make progress on the potential export of Eurofighter Typhoon to Türkiye, an important NATO ally.

"When considering any potential export of Eurofighter, we work closely with the governments of Germany, Italy and Spain, in line with the commitments each nation has made to support the others’ exports," the spokesperson added.

Ankara said last year it was in talks with Britain and Spain to buy Eurofighter Typhoons, though Germany objected to the idea. Since then, it has complained of a lack of progress on the issue and Erdogan alluded to Berlin's reluctance until now.

"We wish to leave behind some of the difficulties experienced in the past in the supply of defence industry products and develop our cooperation," Erdogan told reporters at the press conference in Istanbul.

On Thursday a Turkish defence ministry official said Turkey had been conducting technical work aimed at accelerating its planned purchase of the jets.

(Reporting by Tom Sims in Frankfurt, Daren Butler in Istanbul, Mujiva M in London; editing by David Evans and Jason Neely)