November 2, 2013
A senior US defense official has held
talks in Turkey, the embassy said Saturday, after Washington expressed
"serious concerns" about Ankara's plans to acquire a long-range
anti-missile system from China.
Turkey announced in
September it was entering negotiations with the China Precision
Machinery Export-Import Corporation (CPMIEC) to buy its first long-range
anti-missile system.
The move irritated its NATO
allies, particularly the United States, which has imposed sanctions on
CPMIEC for selling arms and missile technology to Iran and Syria.
"Under
Secretary of Defence for Policy Jim Miller visited Turkey for bilateral
consultations on regional security issues, including Syria, the
US-Turkish bilateral defence relationship, and our partnership in NATO,"
US embassy spokesman T.J. Grubisha said.
US Ambassador
to Turkey Francis Ricciardone said last month that Washington was
concerned about the prospect of a deal with the Chinese company.
"There's
no disagreement between us but we are seriously concerned about what
this means for allied missile air defence," he said.
NATO
chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has also voiced concern about the decision
and said missile systems within the transatlantic military alliance must
be compatible with each other.
CPMIEC, which makes the
HQ-9 missile system, beat competition from a US partnership of Raytheon
and Lockheed Martin, Russia's Rosoboronexport, and Italian-French
consortium Eurosam for the deal, estimated at $4 billion (2.9 billion
euros).
Turkey has defended its decision to enter into
talks with the Chinese company but said it is open to new bids should
the negotiations fall through.
US Assistant Secretary
of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland will hold
talks in Istanbul and in the southern city of Adana next week, the
embassy spokesman said.
Turkey's foreign minister will
travel to Washington on November 18, but will not discuss the missile
deal unless the US side brings it up, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
