Weapons for Ukraine
Scholz confirms plans to exchange rings with the Czech Republic
5/5/2022 9:32 p.m
More cooperation on defense and energy supply – that’s what Chancellor Scholz and Czech Prime Minister Fiala announced after their meeting in Berlin. And it could soon become concrete: the countries of Ukraine want to provide further military aid together.
Germany and the Czech Republic are working on a ring exchange of heavy weapons for Ukraine. This was announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala after a meeting in Berlin. The Czech Republic is supposed to deliver Russian-made heavy weapons to Ukraine, while Germany will help it to replace them with modern Western weapons, said Scholz.
Fiala said the exchange of rings would be beneficial for both Ukraine and the Czech Republic. According to reports, it is about the delivery of tanks to Ukraine. The daily newspaper “Welt” recently quoted from a confidential paper by the German Defense Ministry, according to which the Czech Republic had been given a list of weapons material that could be considered for a ring exchange.
Beyond that, both countries want to expand their defense cooperation. Fiala spoke of a joint project to modernize the Czech army.
There should also be mutual support in the plan to end dependence on Russian energy supplies. According to Fiala, among other things, the possibility of expanding the capacity of the TAL oil pipeline between Italy and Germany was discussed, in order to supply the Czech Republic with sufficient oil in this way.
Scholz said Germany wants to supply LNG gas to Eastern European EU countries without ports on the North and Baltic Seas. Solidarity will be shown when it comes to supplying all EU countries with alternatives to Russian gas, said the Chancellor. Fiala said that Scholz had assured him that the Czech Republic could be supplied via the liquid gas terminals planned by Germany. This is a very important statement. The Czech Republic is more than 95 percent dependent on Russian pipeline gas.