Turkey to sign missile agreement with China in late 2013

An agreement on building long-range missiles will be signed with China in late 2013, the Turkish Defense Industry Committee said today. The Chinese company's project which envisages manufacturing FD-2000 missiles technically leaves the Russian, American and French-Italian companies projects behind. Earlier it was reported that on September 2013 at a meeting of the Turkish Defence Industry Executive Committee it was announced that the Chinese CPMIEC company won the tender for the creation of long range missiles in Turkey. It was also reported that these missiles will be created by the Chinese company in cooperation with Turkish companies. Moreover, it is reported that the U.S. authorities informed Turkey of their concerns about the country's intentions to cooperate with China in the creation of missile defence systems. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the priority for Turkey is to create the missiles in his own country.

NATO: Concern about Chinese FD-2000 for Turkey

The head of NATO expressed concern on Monday 7th over Turkey’s decision to co-produce a missile defense system with a Chinese firm, saying he expected Ankara to choose a system that was compatible with those of other allies.

Turkey has said it is likely to sign a $3.4 billion missile defense deal with a Chinese firm that is subject to U.S. sanctions, although its decision is not yet final. The United States has expressed serious concerns to Turkey, saying the Chinese missile defense system would not work with NATO systems.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said last month it favored China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp’s (CPMIEC) FD-2000 missile defense system over more expensive rival systems from Russian, U.S. and European firms. Some Western defense analysts have said they were surprised by Turkey’s decision, having expected the contract to go to Raytheon Co, a U.S. company that builds the Patriot missile, or the Franco-Italian Eurosam SAMP/T.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands each sent two Patriot batteries to southeastern Turkey this year after Ankara asked NATO to strengthen its defenses against possible missile attack from Syria.

Turkey put his eyes in China

Turkey said today in an official statement that it has "decided to begin talks with the CPMIEC company of the People's Republic of China for the joint production of the systems and its missiles in Turkey." Turkey wants to build its own long-range air defense and anti-missile architecture to counter both enemy aircraft and missiles. In January, NATO began deploying Patriot missile system batteries to help protect Turkey from any spillover of the conflict in neighboring Syria. The Patriot missiles, effective against aircraft and short-range missiles, were provided by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.