Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — China, selected for the first major defense project in
a NATO member, has long cooperated with Turkey in the development of
ballistic missiles.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies said Turkey, with the
second largest military in NATO, has been working with Beijing for nearly 20
years on missile development.

In an analysis, the center said Ankara turned to China after Turkey was rejected by potential partners in the West.

[See also: Turkey’s missile defense deal with notorious ‘China Precision Machinery’ worries U.S.]

“It is worth noting that in the 1990s Turkey worked with CPMIEC [China
Precision Machinery Export-Import Corp.] in the licensing and technology
transfer to produce several short-range ballistic missile systems that it
could not acquire from the United States and Europe,” the center said.

In an analysis, authors Bulent Aliriza and Samuel Brannen pointed to
Turkey’s long-standing relationship with the state-owned CPMIEC. On Sept.
26, the Turkish Defense Industry Executive Committee, chaired by Prime
Minister Recep Erdogan, selected the Chinese company as the winner of
Ankara’s ballistic missile defense project, dubbed T-LORAMIDS.

“Should the talks on an agreement with CPMIEC fail, Ankara intends to
engage Eurosam,” the analysis said.

Aliriza and Brannen asserted that Turkey, which hosts six U.S.-origin
Patriot batteries, could link the Chinese BMD system, HQ-9, to NATO. They
said this would involve software and hardware development of the BMD system,
50 percent of which would be produced in Turkey.

“Full integration would ultimately be subject to a political decision,
which would take into account the potential risk of Chinese infiltration or
exfiltration of data,” the analysis said.

Aliriza and Brannen raised the prospect that Turkey’s selection of HQ-9
was linked to a decline in relations between Erdogan and President Barack
Obama. The analysis, dated Oct. 8, cited Turkey’s dismay over the U.S.
refusal to intervene in the Syrian civil war.

“Erdogan’s disappointment at the continuing unwillingness of Obama to
engage forcefully in the Syrian crisis has been deepened by his sanctioning
of the Russia-brokered deal with the [Syrian President Bashar] Assad regime
on its chemical weapons instead of military action,” the analysis said. “The
two sides have also publicly disagreed on the reaction to the military
overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt and the Turkish
government’s reaction to the Gezi Park protests.”

  Center for Strategic and International Studies, CPMIEC, HQ-9, Recep Erdogan, Report: China, Report: Nothing new about missile partnership between China, T-LORAMIDS, Turkey