If USA also send tanks
Scholz should be ready for the “Leopard” delivery
01/18/2023, 9:38 p.m
Chancellor Scholz has irritated Western partners more than once with his strict no on the tank issue. Now the hard line seems to be softening. If the United States delivers “Abrams” type battle tanks to Ukraine, Germany would be prepared to send the “Leopard,” the media write.
According to information from the Wall Street Journal and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is ready to deliver Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, but on one condition. In a phone call with US President Joe Biden, Scholz made it clear, according to SZ, that Germany could only give in to the pressure to deliver if the US in turn delivered “Abrams” type battle tanks. Biden apparently did not commit himself to the conversation. The United States is therefore demanding that the Chancellery not only allow other countries to supply “Leopard 2” battle tanks, but also supply them itself.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Germany would refuse to supply and export its own Leopard tanks if the US didn’t also give the go-ahead. “You cannot distinguish between direct exports (of German-made tanks) and exports through third countries,” a senior German official told the paper.
Stoltenberg announces vote in Ramstein
According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the delivery of “heavier and more modern weapons” will be announced when western Ukraine supporters meet in Ramstein on Friday. The main message of the US-led Ukraine group meeting will be that there will be “more support and more developed support, heavier weapons and more modern weapons,” Stoltenberg said at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The NATO Secretary General did not comment more specifically.
The discussion among the western partners has recently focused primarily on the German Leopard 2 battle tanks, which Scholz had previously resisted delivering to Ukraine. In his speech in Davos on Wednesday, the chancellor said nothing about these tanks.