Despite all the warnings from the United States and NATO, Turkey looks determined to go ahead with the deal it reached with China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corp. (CPMIEC) to acquire a long-range anti-missile system. The Vatan daily today, Nov. 21, quoted officials from the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries who asked to remain anonymous as saying they faced no technical problems in the negotiations with the Chinese side, and predicted that the actual signatures on this potential agreement would be put in place earlier than the projected 6- to 12-month interval.

The same sources also said that they have already started working on new software that would allow them to integrate this Chinese system into the NATO system, and that they registered significant progress so far. With this software, the Turkish side argues that the Chinese system will be integrated into Turkish air defenses, and that would prevent both NATO and China from accessing each other’s networks. They have also stated that while the agreement looks like a 90% done deal, there may still be a political decision to change the end result.

"The ones who raised objection to this deal so far have been the officials working at NATO, but it is the NATO Council that could say the final word on matters as such," said the unidentified officials of the defense undersecretariat. "Turkey needs to diversify its resources, and create new alternatives. In other words, it does not necessarily solely [need to] be connected to the Western system."

Turkey, however, extended the time for US and EU companies to renew their proposal until Jan. 31. That said, officials say these companies did not make any revisions on the cost of the project, and therefore the Chinese proposal still remains the winner because it also promises technology transfers which Turkey has been asking the United States to share, to help it advance Turkish defense industries.