By John Irish, Angelo Amante and Tuvan Gumrukcu
PARIS/ROME/ANKARA, July 6 (Reuters) - France is open to a possible sale of the Franco-Italian SAMP/T air-defence system to Turkey after years of political opposition, according to five sources familiar with the matter, paving the way for more substantive talks with Ankara.
Four sources said 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 Turkey, although negotiations remain at an early stage.
"Before, there was a clear lack of openness, now there is openness," said one source familiar with the discussions.
The French presidency, when sent a number of questions for this article, 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 defence ministry. Turkey's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
SAMP/T BEING DISCUSSED BETWEEN MELONI, MACRON AND ERDOGAN
The sources said that Paris had set aside some political reservations that had previously blocked progress, although hesitations remained.
Turkey, France and Italy launched cooperation on a possible long-range air-defence programme in 2017 to 2018, including studies into co-development and co-production.
However, the project stalled as ties between Paris and Ankara deteriorated over Syria, Libya and disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean involving Greece and 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.
Turkey has NATO's second-largest army, but air defence remains a key issue as it lacks its own fully fledged missile defences and relies heavily on NATO's systems and fighter jets.
Turkey has been seeking the system as part of its planned "Steel Dome" integrated air and missile-defence network.
POLITICAL WILL TO ADVANCE, TURKISH OFFICIAL SAYS
One source added that Meloni and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed the matter during a call on July 3.
Defence Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters in June that Ankara was evaluating options including the U.S. Patriot and SAMP/T and remained open to cooperation involving technology transfer and joint production.
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 (Turkey, 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 defend itself against Iranian missile attacks this year.
Italy sent the system to Turkey in mid-June as part of NATO defence planning.
Any deal would likely centre around the new generation of the system, which is being rolled out to the French and Italian militaries.
Erdogan and Macron will hold a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit to discuss bilateral issues, officials said.
YEARS OF POLITICAL TENSIONS
Erdogan at NATO's summit in The Hague in 2025 had already sought to push Macron to drop his opposition after relations between the two men thawed.
Two sources cautioned that France would need to placate Greece and Cyprus over any potential sale. It has signed strategic defence accords with both countries.
For years, Turkish officials privately and publicly regarded France as the principal political obstacle to the programme, while Italy has long been in favour of sharing the SAMP/T with Turkey to deepen defence industry cooperation.
Momentum has returned over the past year as Ankara has intensified efforts to strengthen its missile-defence capabilities amid regional instability and NATO allies have reassessed defence 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, defence and security researcher at Turkey's SETA foundation.
(Additional reporting by Giulia Segreti in Rome and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
