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Germany to sell weapons to Lithuania: officials

Xinhua, April 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Germany is willing to sell 12 howitzers to Lithuania, according to the visiting German defense minister here on Wednesday.

At a news conference with Lithuanian defense minister, Juozas Olekas, German counterpart Ursula von der Leyen said Lithuania had expressed interest in purchasing the self-propelled howitzer PzH 2000s and that Germany had the weapons available to sell.

She said experts of the two countries would discuss the matter in detail in early May.

"We want to move fast ... I truly expect that we will get the first howitzers as early as next year," Colonel Romualdas Petkevicius, director of Lithuanian defense ministry's weaponry and control systems department, told BNS news agency.

Besides providing weapons to Lithuania, Germany is also planning to send 500 military personnel to the Baltic country for training this year, according to Lithuania's defense ministry.

Germany also plans to post military personnel to the NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) to be established in the Baltic States and other Eastern European countries, said the ministry.

Following measures to beef up Lithuania's army by raising the budget and reintroducing conscription, the Baltic country is seeking more defense cooperation with its NATO allies. Currently, five M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks from the United States are being deployed in Lithuania for the first time. Endit