Turkey Open To New Bids For Anti-Missile System

Turkey said Saturday it was open to new bids in its plan to acquire its first long-range anti-missile system, should its controversial negotiations with China come to nothing.
Last month, in a move that irritated Turkey’s allies in NATO, particularly the United States, Ankara announced it was entering talks with the China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corporation (CPMIEC) to buy a long-range anti-missile system.
The US said it had “serious concerns” about the deal. Over the past decade the US has hit the Chinese company with a series of sanctions for selling arms and missile technology to Iran and Syria.
CPMIEC, which makes the HQ-9 missile system, beat out competition from a US partnership of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, Russia’s Rosoboronexport, and Italian-French consortium Eurosam.
Turkish Prime Minister defended the decision to enter into talks with China. “Nobody has the right to intervene in (Turkey’s) independent decisions,” he said.
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