Scholz is afraid of Russia and slows down arms shipments
West, land of parolei. Germany is reviewing its commitment to sending weapons to Ukraine: as international support for Ukraine loses momentum, Germany continues to refuse to deliver high-tech tanks to Ukraine and is betting on arms trading with countries Eastern Europe to assist the war-torn country.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz justified the approach by saying that the decisions were made in close consultation with transatlantic allies.
"It is a leadership decision that we have made together: we do not go alone, but we always work with our allies," he said during his speech to the Bundestag on Wednesday (6 July).
Scholz instead relies on the so-called "chain exchange", in which Eastern European member states hand over their Soviet tanks to Ukraine in exchange for "modernized weapons from German stocks".
After initial delays in the supply of these weapons to Eastern EU partners, Scholz has announced that the shipment will be imminent. "We have put a lot of energy into making sure this happens," he said.
While Scholz has justified its refusal to ship high-tech tanks to Ukraine directly by saying it does not want to deviate from the Western approach, Spain is currently considering whether to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine. It seems that a Ukrainian delegation is currently in Spain to check the wagons.
However, even if Madrid were to give the green light to the deal, Germany would still have the final say on the delivery of the tanks. Since the tanks were originally produced in Germany, the government has a veto right on shipping to third countries.
Rheinmetall, Germany's largest arms supplier, also recently announced it could deliver around 100 Marder and nearly 90 Leopard I tanks to Ukraine in the near future. A dozen of these tanks are ready for shipment.
Meanwhile, the momentum for further engagement in Ukraine is slowing significantly, a report from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, updated Wednesday, noted.
While Ukraine is heading towards a critical phase in the struggle for Donbas, almost no further efforts have been made in recent weeks. The total commitment for Ukraine amounts to € 80.7 billion, but the global community has only pledged around € 2.5 billion between June 8 and July 1.
Although Chancellor Scholz said his government has mobilized "a lot of support for Ukraine", Germany is only in 13th place when it comes to its commitment to Ukraine in relation to GDP – behind France, Denmark and Portugal. Why a drop in interest? It seems clear, beyond the words of support, that Germany is objectively afraid of having its energy resources cut, for example without the restart of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline after the scheduled maintenance that should start on 21 July and last two weeks.
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The article Scholz is afraid of Russia and slows down arms shipments comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/scholz-ha-paura-della-russia-e-rallenta-gli-invii-di-armi/ on Sat, 09 Jul 2022 15:41:46 +0000.