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Annalena Baerbock: "In a situation like this, nobody deceives their European neighbors"
Photo: CHRISTOPHE GATEAU / AFP
Poland unhappy with progress on armored ring swap with German government for Ukraine.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has now admitted that the project is not working as planned.
However, she rejects the sharp criticism of the Polish government, which recently accused Germany in SPIEGEL of breaking its promises and deceptive maneuvers in the tank ring exchange.
"In a situation like this, nobody deceives their European neighbors," said the Green politician on Friday evening in the "image" format "The Right Questions".
The situation is unsatisfactory for both sides.
But in war you don't always know right away which is the perfect way.
And the exchange of rings was initiated because it seemed to be “the best and quickest way at the time”.
In the ring exchange procedure, eastern allies of Ukraine are to provide easy-to-operate Soviet-design tanks.
In return, Germany promised the NATO partners modern equipment as a replacement.
But the result causes trouble in Warsaw.
Poland's President Andrzej Duda has repeatedly accused Berlin of not keeping promises.
The Polish government makes it clear to SPIEGEL that it feels betrayed by Germany.
"The German promises to exchange tank rings turned out to be deceptive maneuvers," said Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek. First, the Germans offered the Poles tanks "that were older than those we gave Ukraine."
This offer was "not to be accepted because we have no interest in deteriorating the condition of our armament and in training our soldiers on equipment from the 1960s".
That is why they are now relying on the help of other NATO partners.
"It was clear from the start that we wouldn't be able to replace every single tank overnight with a snap of our fingers," Baerbock replied to the accusations from Poland.
"Of course they can say we want more from you, but the tanks they have can still be delivered directly to Ukraine." Germany cannot deliver new tanks that the Bundeswehr itself does not have, said the Greens -Politician.
Others, on the other hand, could be delivered immediately.
Lambrecht rejects criticism
Since the exchange of rings is obviously not going as planned, the federal government is now examining “why that is obviously not happening and whether we then have to provide other support”.
Armed aid for Ukraine is not just about tanks, but also about other heavy equipment, said Baerbock.
"I've made it clear several times that we have to look at how we can support the artillery more."
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had defended the tank ring exchange against criticism on Thursday.
It is very important to the federal government to fill in the gaps;
but that cannot happen overnight.
In addition to Poland, the federal government has also agreed ring exchange deals with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Greece.
asc/dpa/AFP
