Turkey Develops Domestic Missile Defense System, No Agreements With Russia

Turkey's undersecretary for defense industries said Tuesday his country aims to develop its own missile defense system, denying the existence of reported agreements with Russia.

ANKARA (Sputnik) — Turkish media claimed after Russian President Vladimir Putin's talks with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday that Ankara could consider Moscow's proposal to develop the missile defense system.

"We do not have a missile defense agreement with Russia, it is not on the agenda. We discuss overall cooperation with Russia in the field of defense industry. Turkey develops its own missile defense system," Undersecretary Ismail Demir said in an interview with Turkey's Anadolu news service.

Turkey canceled a $4-billion tender for the purchase of components for the country's missile defense system in November 2015 after opting to develop the system domestically.

In 2009, Turkey put out a tender for the creation of its missile defense system. The US consortium Raytheon-Lockheed Martin, Europe's Eurosam and Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport all entered bids. However, China's CPMIEC ultimately won the tender.