NATO warns Turkey against buying Chinese, Russian Air defense systems

NATO may avoid sharing ballistic missiles intelligence with Turkey if the nation decides to buy Chinese or Russian systems for its missile defense program. Turkey is planning to decide late this year or early next year on its national air and missile contracts. Despite this criticism, Turkey so far has not ruled out the Chinese and Russian options, saying there is no need to exclude them. "If, say, the Chinese win the competition, their systems will be in interaction, directly or indirectly, with NATO's intelligence systems, and this may lead to the leak of critical NATO information to the Chinese, albeit inadvertently," said one anonymous Western analyst. "So this is dangerous." Another Western official warned, "NATO won't let that happen. If the Chinese or the Russians win the Turkish contest, their systems will have to work separately. They won't be linked to NATO information systems." Turkey has been a member of NATO for nearly 60 years.