Poland, a neighboring country of Ukraine which is defending itself against Russian aggression, signed an agreement on Wednesday (January 4th) for the purchase of 116 Abrams tanks from the United States, as part of the reinforcement of its army.
The sale had been approved by the US State Department in December.
"
We are strengthening the 'iron fist' of the Polish military to effectively deter the aggressor
," Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said at a signing ceremony for the agreement in Warsaw.
Mariusz Blaszczak specified that the first Abrams M1A1 tanks foreseen by the agreement should be delivered later this year in eastern Poland.
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$1.4 billion
Last year, Poland had already purchased 250 Abrams tanks from the United States which, according to the Polish minister, should be delivered by the end of 2024. According to a tweet from the Polish Ministry of Defense, the value of the new contract amounts to 1 .4 billion dollars, of which 200 million are financed by the American part within the framework of aid to Poland.
The signing of the second batch agreement comes more than 10 months after the start of the war in neighboring Ukraine, which spilled over into Poland last month when a surface-to-air missile, in all likelihood Ukrainian, fell there near the border, killing two people.
