NATO warns Turkey against buying Chinese, Russian air defense systems

Neil

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Ankara would have to operate without NATO's intelligence information on incoming ballistic missiles if it chooses to buy Chinese or Russian systems for its national air and missile defense program, officials of the Western alliance have warned Turkey.

Participating in the ongoing competition to win Turkey's national air and missile contract are the U.S. partnership between Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, with their Patriot air defense systems; Russia's Rosoboronexport, marketing the S300; China's CPMIEC (China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corp.), offering its HQ-9; and the Italian-French Eurosam, maker of the SAMP/T Aster 30. Turkey is planning to make its selection late this year or early next year.

Many Western officials and experts say that since the Russian and the Chinese systems are not compatible with NATO systems, their potential eventual victory might provide them with access to classified NATO information, and as a result may compromise NATO's procedures.

But despite this criticism, Turkey so far has ruled against expelling the Chinese and Russian options, saying there is no need to exclude them from the Turkish competition.

One Western expert countered that "if, say, the Chinese win the competition, their systems will be in interaction, directly or indirectly, with NATO's intelligence systems, and this may lead to the leak of critical NATO information to the Chinese, albeit inadvertently. So this is dangerous."

"NATO won't let that happen," another Western official told the Hürriyet Daily News on Monday. "If the Chinese or the Russians win the Turkish contest, their systems will have to work separately. They won't be linked to NATO information systems."

This was the first time NATO has strongly urged Turkey against choosing the non-Western systems.

"One explanation is that Turkey itself doesn't plan to [ultimately] select the Chinese or Russian alternatives, but still is retaining them among their options to put pressure on the Americans and the Europeans to [lower] their prices," the Western expert said.

Turkey's long-range air and missile defense systems program (T-Loramids) has been designed to counter both enemy aircraft and missiles.

NATO missile shield

Turkey's national program is totally separate and independent from NATO's own plans to design, develop and build its own collective missile shield.

The Western alliance decided during a leaders' summit meeting in Lisbon in November last year to create the collective missile shield against potential incoming ballistic missiles from rogue countries. Ankara agreed to the decision only after the alliance accepted a Turkish request that Iran or other countries would not be specifically mentioned as potential sources of threats.

NATO now is seeking to deploy a special X-band radar in Turkish territory for the early detection of missiles launched from the region.

Senior U.S. and Turkish officials discussed the matter in mid-July in Istanbul on the sidelines of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and both sides reported progress toward an eventual deployment of the X-band radar on Turkish soil.

Ideally, in the event of a launch of a ballistic missile from a rogue state, it would be detected by the X-band radar, and U.S.-made SM-3 interceptors – based on U.S. Aegis destroyers to be deployed in the eastern Mediterranean and later possibly in Romania – would then be fired to hit the incoming missile mid-flight.



NATO warns Turkey against buying Chinese, Russian air defense systems | idrw.org
 
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Blackwater

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Turkey has to decide where she has to go. Either ammericaa or His Holliness Pakistan. i think she should go to her thakedar
 

JayATL

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kick turkey out of NATO... and hope they buy the chinese version of missle defense bullet train HQ-9
 

Tshering22

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I don't know where this Erdogn is taking them.... confusing.
 

Neil

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dont know why NATO is tolerating Turkey when they know that slowly but surely turkey is slipping out of their alliance and every tech they sell is falling in the hands of Iran...
 

asianobserve

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dont know why NATO is tolerating Turkey when they know that slowly but surely turkey is slipping out of their alliance and every tech they sell is falling in the hands of Iran...
Well it's almost the same situation that the US has with Pakistan. Better keep Pakistan close than lose it altogether wherein the US will also lose whatever leverage it has in it. Besides, Western powers may still dream that one day a more secular regime will take power in Istanbul.
 

sandeepdg

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Loosing NATO support and infrastructure can be a heavy loss for Turkey's foreign policy, it will become alienated from its next door European neighbors. Hope they don't make stupid decisions, and if they do they should kicked out of NATO, since lately we have been signals that Turkey is trying to exert its influence on the Arabs, though not very successful, and they are trying to project themselves as a major military power in West Asia, other than Israel, and an alternative to the Saudis clout over the regional affairs.
 

ashicjose

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Loosing NATO support and infrastructure can be a heavy loss for Turkey's foreign policy, it will become alienated from its next door European neighbors. Hope they don't make stupid decisions, and if they do they should kicked out of NATO, since lately we have been signals that Turkey is trying to exert its influence on the Arabs, though not very successful, and they are trying to project themselves as a major military power in West Asia, other than Israel, and an alternative to the Saudis clout over the regional affairs.
they will be one day.
 

Neil

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Well it's almost the same situation that the US has with Pakistan. Better keep Pakistan close than lose it altogether wherein the US will also lose whatever leverage it has in it. Besides, Western powers may still dream that one day a more secular regime will take power in Istanbul.
very true...but the moves turkey is playing against NATO its going to be kicked out soon

BTW pakistan have to be kept closer because of its nuclear weapons why turkey-pure strategic right...??
 

Tshering22

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NATO is a very weak alliance now in terms of voice. Why do you think Turkish government never made such overtures earlier in 90s and 80s and all? Simply because NATO HAD a reason to exist then and continue remaining strong. Now it is irrelevant. With Soviet Empire dead, with multi-polar world as the focus, NATO's status has been badly reduced from once a defender of foreign interests, to just a mechanism to test Western weapons for global sale.

All the countries in NATO except UK, USA, Germany and France are liabilities with barely having any capacity to handle wars. The lion's share of the war is done by USA, followed by UK and Germany since France is an ambiguous member frequenting in and out of NATO now and then.

Russia is no more idealistic and very much a capitalist economy looking to make big money and success at world market. China is the assumed replacement for USSR but Chinese are not even quarter Soviet might and influence. They are more or less a soft economic power, willing to turn aggressive however being unable to do so at the same time.

That leaves the world with us. Since we are not militarily vocal nor we have any interest in pulling strings, Turkey emerges as a big player in recent years. Resting on Ataturk's laurels and hardwork, Turkey has emerged as a regional bigwig and now with Erdogan in the mainstream, they want to play "WHOS THE OTTMAN" game again. With Europe in deep recession, US engaged in multiple warfronts, Russia not militarily interested, China unable to do so and us not interested in geo-politics, Turkey sees itself as the new leader of the Muslim world not just as an ideological role model but as a role model in terms of scientific and economic development.

One has to accept that Turkey is the smartest and the most rational Muslim country on this planet that has a no-nonsense attitude to go along with it. It is also the only Muslim-absolute-majority country that does not let organized religion get into its way politically. That is until now when it has started to become more and more conservative under the AKP. For some reason, the Turks are moving away from NATO for goodness-knows-what reasons.
 

asianobserve

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very true...but the moves turkey is playing against NATO its going to be kicked out soon

BTW pakistan have to be kept closer because of its nuclear weapons why turkey-pure strategic right...??
Turkey occupies a strategic position for the Western allies both with respect to the Middle East and Russia (which is not much an issue lately). Of course, the Western alliance would not laso want Turkey to fall into China, Pakistan and Iran's ragtag camp...
 

amoy

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Chinese and Russian participation may be just Turkey's bargaining leverage with numerous bidders
the U.S. partnership between Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, with their Patriot air defense systems; Russia's Rosoboronexport, marketing the S300; China's CPMIEC (China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corp.), offering its HQ-9; and the Italian-French Eurosam, maker of the SAMP/T Aster 30.
Turkey (read Erdogan admin.) of course has to act on her own interest not NATO's. Turkey's doesn't always converge with NATO's. The more 'independently" Turkey behaves, the more NATO (or the US) realizes its importance. Or merely from a "transction" perspective Turkey is playing logically.

Those talks abt "Muslim-absolute-majority " or "Ottoman complex" is around the bush IMO
 
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