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From Tawan Jamrakji

Ankara, March 10 (Reuters) - Turkey's Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday the deployment of a U.S. Patriot air defense system in the southeastern province of Malatya, as part of NATO's measures to bolster the member state's air defenses against missile threats stemming from a war with Iran.

The NATO radar base in Korecik, located in Malatya, provides vital data to the alliance and helped locate two Iranian ballistic missiles that were headed towards Türkiye.

Iran stated that it is not at war with any country in the region and denied explicitly targeting its neighbor Türkiye. Ankara warned Tehran against launching further missiles toward it, and the two countries' presidents discussed the matter on Monday.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense stated, "In addition to the measures we are taking at the national level, air and missile defense measures have been strengthened by NATO. In this context, one Patriot system is being deployed in Malatya to contribute to the defense of our airspace."

The ministry added that Türkiye will continue to assess regional developments and cooperation with NATO members.

The deployment of the system comes amid reports that Washington is considering redeploying its military assets currently stationed in South Korea, including Patriot systems.

It is not yet clear from where the Patriot system or its batteries will be redeployed.

Turkey is a rising power in the global defense sector and has the second largest army in the alliance, but it lacks complete air defenses despite development efforts and relied on NATO defenses based in the eastern Mediterranean in last week's two missile incidents.

Turkey currently has one Patriot missile system, from Spain, as part of NATO's defenses.