Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun has declined to comment information that Russia will deliver four Sukhoi Su-35 (NATO reporting name: Flanker-E) fighter jets to China before the year-end.

“Russia and China continue cooperating in the sphere of combat aircraft,” he said at a regular briefing conference.

“Bilateral interaction in the aviation and other spheres is developing in accordance with the program,” he added.

Governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Vyacheslav Shport said on September 15 that the Gagarin Aircraft Plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Russia’s Far East would deliver four out of 24 Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets to China before the yearend.

It was reported earlier that a contract for the delivery of 24 Su-35 multipurpose fighter jets to China had been signed in November 2015. The deal is estimated at more than $2 billion.

Head of Russia’s state hi-tech corporation Rostec Sergei Chemezov said in March that the deliveries “will not start this year.”