The White House declares that it only agreed to the delivery of American battle tanks at Germany's insistence. The federal government does not want to leave it like that. Both sides would have paid attention to a common approach.
The federal government has contradicted a statement from the White House that US President Joe Biden only agreed to the delivery of Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine at German insistence - against the recommendation of his military. Deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner made it clear that the decision for the joint delivery of battle tanks had been made by mutual agreement from the German point of view. "These were good, constructive discussions, in which both sides always made sure that a common approach was reached."
Büchner reiterated an earlier statement by government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit that Chancellor Olaf Scholz had never made Biden's supply of German Leopard tanks conditional on the supply of Abrams tanks. Hebestreit said in January: "At no time (...) was there a link or a demand that one thing had to happen so that the other could happen." Büchner now said that he "does not have to correct" this representation.
Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, presented the decision-making process differently in a television interview on Sunday. The Germans told Biden that they were not prepared to send Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine until the president agreed to a delivery of Abrams. Biden initially decided against the Abrams delivery for military reasons. In the interests of "the unity of the alliance" and "to ensure that Ukraine gets what it wants," he agreed.
