scupper
水面下で行われた交渉が水泡の泡と消えたようです。
Turkey scraps tank engine deal with Japan, post-WWII weapons export ban in play
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of Japan's top heavy machinery and equipment exporters, just lost what could have been potentially a very profitable deal to manufacture and supply military tank engines to Turkey, as post World War II weapons export restrictions come into play.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been very keen on taking down the near total ban on Japanese weapons exports that has resulted in the country's defense contractors losing out on international contracts such as this.
According to sources, Mitsubishi was already on line to supply engines for Turkey’s third generation main battle tank, called the “Altay,” which is being developed by Turkey’s Otokar. Murad Bayar, Turkey’s undersecretary for state-run defense industries, revealed on Thursday that the potential deal has been quietly scuppered in mutual agreements with Tokyo.
“We have agreed with Japanese authorities to leave this topic off the agenda and focus on other areas of cooperation,” Bayar said. The agreement on the tank engines was initially floated by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan when Abe visited Ankara in May.
There were numerous talks that pointed to the deal being a possibility, as Japanese engineers even visited Turkey to be briefed on the details of the tank, but the deal looks to be dead in the water as of the moment if statements from both camp prove to be accurate.
scupperは「船を計画的に沈める」というのがもともとの意味ですが、ニュースなどでは比喩的に「計画などをぶち壊す、つぶす」という意味で用いられることがあります。
LDOCEは"to ruin someone's plans or chance of being successful - used especially in news reports"とあります。scuttleと併せて押さえておきましょう。（UG）
