Turkey’s Unwise Pivot to the East
In January, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that because his country’s talks to join the European Union had stalled, he might seek instead to join China and Russia in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Few took the threat seriously; Turkey has been a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since the 1950s. Yet the government’s decision late last month to award a $3 billion air and missile defense system contract to a state-run company from China suggests that Erdogan is turning east to look for new security partners.
The China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp., or CPMIEC, won the contract to co-produce its HQ-9 surface-to-air missile system in Turkey over bids from the makers of U.S.… Seguir leyendo »