Croatia buys new German Leopard tanks, sends old ones to Ukraine

(Patria) - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Ivan Anušić and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Croatia, Lieutenant General Tihomir Kundid are on an official visit to Germany.

They met with German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, and afterwards with representatives of the company Rheinmetall AG, a German manufacturer of weapons and military equipment.

During the bilateral meeting at the Federal Ministry of Defence, Anušić emphasised that Germany is a significant partner to Croatia in the field of defence and that the priority is to further strengthen and expand this cooperation.

The main topic of the meeting was the equipping and modernisation of the Croatian Army, with an emphasis on the procurement of new Leopard 2A8 tanks.

Namely, Germany invited Croatia to join the German joint procurement programme for the Leopard 2A8 main battle tank.

Ministers Anušić and Pistorius therefore signed a Letter of Intent today, expressing the readiness of the two countries to deliver 30 M-84 tanks and 30 M-80 infantry fighting vehicles from Croatian stocks to Ukraine in the first shipment, including spare parts and ammunition, and to use the financial resources that Croatia will receive from Germany for those tanks and fighting vehicles to procure new German Leopard 2A8 tanks.

That amount would, in fact, reduce the total price of the new Leopard 2A8 tanks. Given the needs of the Croatian Army, Croatia intends to procure up to 50 new Leopard 2A8 tanks.

All other details will be known after the signing of the contract. An additional value of this procurement model is aid to Ukraine in their fight against Russian aggression.

Anušić stated that this model of procuring Leopard 2A8 tanks is suitable for all three involved parties - Croatia, Germany, and Ukraine.

- This is one of the larger and more significant projects for the modernisation of the Croatian Army, along with all the modernisation projects of the Croatian Air Force and the Croatian Navy, we have come to strengthen our armoured forces, our tank battalions.

As is well known, the Leopard is one of the highest quality, if not the highest quality tank of Western German production, and Croatia will be fully equipped with these very tanks - said Anušić.

He added that the Croatian Government has given consent to the letter of intent sent by the German Government and that the implementation of this project will begin very soon.