Turkey's military secrets 'secret' for China
Ankara will not share military secrets with Beijing, Deputy Minister of Defense Industry of Turkey Murat Bayar said, Zaman newspaper reported on Friday.
According to him, in the case of ratification of the contract with China, at the first stage in total 288 long-range missiles will be acquired.
The deputy minister also stressed that if the contract with the Chinese CPMIEC firm is not ratified, the Government will consider a proposal from the French-Italian company Eurosam.
Earlier it was reported that on September 2013 at a meeting of the Turkish Defense Industry Executive Committee it was announced that Chinese CPMIEC company won the tender for the creation of long-range missiles in Turkey.
It was also reported that long-range missiles will be created by the Chinese company in cooperation with Turkish companies.
The Chinese company's project, which envisages the creation of FD- 2000 missiles, technically leaves the Russian, American, and French-Italian companies' projects behind.
A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Turkish defense industry was chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with the participation of head of the Turkish General Staff Necdet Ozel, Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz and Deputy Minister of Defense Industry Murad Bayar.
In addition, it is reported that the U.S. authorities informed Turkey about their concerns about the country's intentions to cooperate with China in the creation of missile defense systems.
Also it is reported that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that priority for Turkey is to create long-range missiles on the territory of the country.
According to him, at present, the government has not yet decided on this issue.
The Turkish defense industry has recently focused on developing and manufacturing its own products. Turkey managed to achieve a self-sufficiency level at 54 percent in the defense industry.
Adapted from TODAY.AZ
More on the topic
- 26.09.2013 Turkey builds scout drone
- 23.07.2013 Turkey completes testing of domestic Altay tank
- 23.07.2013 Turkey builds antimine robot
- 03.07.2013 Turkey signs UN Arms Trade Treaty
- 02.07.2013 Turkey increases investments in defense industry
- 30.04.2013 Turkey presents T-155 Firtina SP artillery mount
- 18.02.2013 NATO concludes missile deployment in Turkey
- 30.01.2013 Turkey is increasing production of weapons
- 22.01.2013 US is top importer of Turkish weapons
- 11.01.2013 Turkey will return Patriot missiles when tensions on Turkish-Syrian border are over
- 09.01.2013 German Patriot missiles arrive in Turkey
- 28.12.2012 Germany to ship Patriots to Turkey on January 8