A measure proposed on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate would prohibit Washington from financially supporting the integration of a Chinese missile system with U.S. technology that is to play an essential role in an evolving NATO defensive shield.

The amendment to the Senate version of the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill, offered by Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), pertains to a possible Turkish effort to buy an antimissile system from Beijing.

If adopted by the Senate and ultimately moved into law, the provision would prohibit any appropriated monies from being spent “to integrate missile defense systems of the People’s Republic of China into United States missile defense systems.”

The amendment also offers a separate “sense of Congress” that Chinese antimissile systems “should not be integrated” with the NATO ballistic-missile shield. . . .

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Tuesday told reporters that Secretary of State John Kerry in a Monday meeting with his visiting Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, “reiterated our concerns and the importance of procuring a NATO interoperable system. . . .”

An unidentified senior U.S. diplomat in the Turkish capital told Defense News this week that any Turkish companies that become subcontractors to the China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp. in building the FD-2000 could be penalized by the U.S. government for working with the blacklisted organization.

“Turkish entities to be involved in this program in partnership with [the Chinese firm] CPMIEC would be denied access to any use of U.S. technology or equipment in relation to this program,” the envoy reportedly said.

Image: Senator Mark Kirk (photo: Office of Senator Mark Kirk)