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Chinese firm secures US$4bn Turkey deal for defense system
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NATO member Turkey has agreed a US$4 billion co-production deal for a long-range air and missile defense system with a Chinese firm, rejecting rival bids from Russian, US and European firms.
The decision to take the FD-2000 from China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp underlined Turkey’s increasingly independent line toward Western partners.
Some Western defense analysts said they were surprised by the choice of the Chinese system, having expected the contract to go to the US Raytheon company, which builds the Patriot missile, or the Franco/Italian Eurosam SAMP/T.
The US, Germany and the Netherlands each sent two Patriot batteries and up to 400 soldiers to operate them to southeastern Turkey early this year after Ankara asked NATO for help with air defenses against possible missile attack from Syria.
“You need to be able to link those missiles to NATO C2 (command and control),” one NATO diplomat in Brussels said.
“I think it is going to raise difficulties.”
Christina Lin, a former US official and now fellow at the School for Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C., described the Turkish decision, announced by the Defence Ministry in Ankara on Thursday, as a “wake-up call” for Western allies.
“China is looking to get a lot more involved in the Middle East and it is being increasingly accepted there,” she said.
“Turkey is increasingly frustrated with the EU and has made it clear that it is pivoting toward the east as well.”
In February, the United States announced sanctions on CPMIEC for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. It did not say precisely what CPMIEC had done.
Turkish analysts said they believed Ankara had chosen its Chinese partner for technological reasons as well as a lower price.
“Turkey’s NATO allies are distanced to the idea of co-production and technological transfer,” Atilla Sandikli, the chairman of think-tank Bilgesam and former high-level officer in the Turkish army, said.
“But the Chinese firm states the opposite. I think Turkey’s choice is a message to its NATO allies in this sense.”
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