Turkey, China to mull building long-range missiles

Turkey and China will discuss the issue of building long-range missiles, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on the eve of his China visit.

He said Ankara is ready to discuss new proposals on building such missiles in the country, TRT Haber TV channel reported July 28.

Turkey’s former president Abdullah Gul said in October 2013 that Turkey’s interests will be above all in this issue.

He said Turkey takes the opinion of its allies into account, but there is nothing illegal in the country’s actions.

The results of the tender on obtaining 12 long-range air defense systems were announced in Turkey in October 2013. Chinese CPMIEC corporation was named the winner of this tender. The US Raytheon/Lockheed Martin consortium, European Eurosam, as well as Russia’s Rosoboronexport also participated in the tender.

The US and NATO attempted to block the participation of the Chinese corporation in the tender as it was sanctioned by the US for delivering weapons to Iran. However, these attempts failed.

The US authorities expressed concern about Turkey’s intention to cooperate with China in creating missile defense systems.

/By Trend/