Turkey says halted missile tender talks with China

ANKARA

Turkey has decided to walk out of talks over getting a long-range missile defense system from a Chinese company in favor of a national missile project, sources said.

Sources from the Turkish Prime Ministry said Sunday that the decision to cancel the $3.4 billion tender and the scheduled procurement contract negotiations with Chinese Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CPMIEC) was approved by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Prime Ministry sources said that the decision to cancel the tender was taken in favor of starting a national missile project.

Turkey and China in the last two years were conducting contract negotiations for the long-range missile defense system, one of Turkey’s largest defense tenders.

In September 2013, the Turkish government said it had plans to partner with CPMIEC, to produce, and acquire the long-missile defense system.

NATO and the United States expressed opposition to Ankara's decision. The state-run Chinese firm CPMIEC was then on a U.S. sanctions list.

Several Western sources also cited potential issues of interoperability of the Chinese system with NATO systems.