China defends missile defence deal with Turkey

BEIJING: China today dismissed concerns expressed by NATO and the US over a deal to co-produce a missile defence system for Turkey, saying such objections amounted to politicisation of business deals.

Responding to the concerns, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a news briefing that the concern of Western countries was unreasonable and unnecessary.

She expressed hope that the parties involved will view normal military trade between China and Turkey in an objective light and not politicise standard commercial competition.

On September 26, Turkish Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz announced the decision to award the contract for the missile defence system to China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday that he expected Turkey to choose a system that was compatible with those of other allies.

The US has expressed its serious concerns to Turkey, saying the Chinese missile defence system would not work with NATO systems.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua said the Chinese government has all along adopted a prudent and responsible attitude toward military trade cooperation with foreign countries.

China strictly follows the principles of not impairing peace and stability regionally or globally, non-interference in internal affairs of recipient countries and strictly performing its international obligations.

The winning Chinese FD-2000 system beat the US-made Patriot, the Russian S-400 and the French-Italian Eurosam Samp-T mainly because of its cost, media reports said.

Turkey, which has the second-largest deployable military force in NATO, has no long-range missile defence system of its own.