German Foreign Minister supports proposal to swap missiles with UK to arm Ukraine

Monday, 11 March 2024

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has supported her UK counterpart David Cameron's proposal to swap cruise missiles as a way of providing Ukraine with long-range weapons.

"It would be an option," the German minister said, commenting on Cameron's proposal, as reported by Spiegel.

The minister noted that such an exchange had been carried out with other equipment, although she gave no details on exactly what it had been for.

"The circular exchange is, so to speak, a German invention. It would be an option. And we have already done it with other equipment some time ago," the German Foreign Minister added.

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Earlier, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron suggested that Germany swap Taurus missiles for British Storm Shadows so that Ukraine could be provided with long-range weapons.

Anton Hofreiter, a member of the German Bundestag from the Green Party, supported a UK proposal to swap German-made Taurus missiles for British Storm Shadows, while Johann Wadephul, a representative of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union opposition centre-right Christian democratic political alliance in the Bundestag, opposes such an exchange, as he believes that it is Taurus missiles that Ukraine should receive.

The German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on this proposal in January. However, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said at the time that he was unaware of any UK proposal to exchange missiles.

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