Turkey postpones missile defence decision to August 31

In a statement by the Undersecretariat on Thursday stated that if contract negotiations with the Chinese contender fails, Turkey will open talks with the runner-up bidder, Eurosam, the Italian-French consortium.

"If negotiations end without success with the European consortium, Turkey will negotiate with the U.S. government for Raytheon/Lockheed Martin's bid," the statement said.

Facing unprecedented pressure from NATO and the U.S. to back away from the Chinese deal citing the state-run Chinese firm CPMIEC is on a U.S. sanctions list and also maintaining that the Chinese system is incompatible with NATO systems, Ankara has extended its deadline for revised offers for the third time.

Turkey, a NATO member state since 1952, announced in September last year that it had chosen the FD-2000 missile defense system from China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp for a $3.4 billion project with high technology transfer-over systems from the Italian-French and American companies.