A few days before Olaf Scholz's trip to Washington this week, an astonishing transatlantic spectacle unfolded: Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a TV interview that the US president had only agreed to supply American Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine at the German chancellor's urging. The US tanks are to supplement the German Leopard tanks that Germany and other European NATO countries plan to send.
In doing so, Sullivan not only contradicted earlier statements by his boss who insisted that Germany had not made him change his mind, but also the German government, whose spokesman explicitly denied the notion of "a package" of German Leopards and American Abrams.
The German denial is meant to "avoid the impression that the Americans have been put under pressure," Henning Hoff of the German Council on Foreign Relations told DW. "I think what has become clear is that Chancellor Scholz was able to make it clear to Washington: 'I need this backing, otherwise it will be very difficult for me to take this step.'"
He added that this ultimately succeeded because the chancellor and the president have a good personal connection.
Read more at: https://www.dw.com
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