November 27, 2015
Turkey Suddenly Remembers It's Part of NATO and Decides Not to Buy Chinese Weapons
By Torie Rose DeGhett
November 24, 2015 | 9:37 am
Turkey is a major military power, with an army of 400,000 soldiers and a very large air force, yet it doesn't have long-range air defenses — a pretty glaring deficiency for a country perched in a dangerous neighborhood, with the Ukrainian conflict to the north and the Middle Eastern powder keg sitting on its southern border. The Turkish government was close to a giant, $3.4 billion deal with a Chinese firm to buy just such a system, but in a sudden twist, cancelled it last week. And it made the announcement just while it was hosting China's president Xi Jinping at the G20 summit last week in Antalya.
The deal would have been a major coup for Beijing — a multibillion dollar sale to a rapidly rising regional power, and a member of NATO no less, which would have marked China's arrival on the world arms market as a serious player. But its scrapping signals that China may not be quite ready yet for a place at the table where the big boys of arms export — the US, Russia and a select few European countries — share a pie worth at least $76 billion .
The deal struck with CPMIEC in September 2013 was politically controversial from the outset. Instead of going with the expected choice of a system produced by its European or American allies, Ankara instead selected a Chinese firm sanctioned by the US for violating the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The choice of China over Turkey's NATO allies did not seem to make for particularly good politics and, unsurprisingly, drew criticism.
Click on Link:
