Sunday, February 22, 2015

Germany cancels armored vehicle purchase by Lithuania.


via Sputniknews.com
A spokesman of the German Ministry of Defense announced that Germany will not supply Lithuania with Boxer armored fighting vehicles as was expected before.
Deliveries of armored transport vehicles from the Bundeswehr or their resale are not expected in the coming years, the spokesman said.
Lithuanian authorities sent a request for military equipment supplies to the German Ministry of Defense of Germany in summer of 2014 when they decided to modernize the armed forces of the country.
The cancellation of the weapons supplies means that the German government respects the agreement between NATO and Russia on non-deployment of large military units in Eastern Europe, according to the German newspaper “Die Welt”. However, spokesman of the CSU political party, Florian Hahn, mentioned that anxiety of the Baltic states with regard to the Ukrainian crisis is justified and that Germany should support its NATO and EU partners in the Baltic region as much as possible.
Just plain wow.

Is this a sign that Germany is prepared to throw Eastern Europe democracies under the bus in a bid to win favor from Russia?

Is this another sign that NATO has outlived its usefulness?

I'm not sure...I do know that this move smacks of weakness, and appears to be a bid for peace at all costs.

Additional Reading.  Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland are creating a joint brigade.  Are we seeing the beginnings of a "NATO" inside of NATO?