Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Polish government has signed a deal to buy 116 Abrams tanks from the United States as it builds up its military amid the war raging in neighboring Ukraine.
The US State Department approved the sale in December.
Poland’s deal with the US
According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), Poland Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, during a signing ceremony in Warsaw, said that “We have strengthened the iron fist of the Polish military to efficiently deter an aggressor.”
The defense ministry said that the value of the contract was $1.4 billion with $200 million financed by the US side. Blaszczak said that the first tanks under the deal were set to be delivered later this year to eastern Poland.
Previous year, Poland bought 250 Abrams tanks from the US which, according to the Polish minister, should be delivered in late 2024. Signing a deal on the second batch comes more than 10 months into the war in neighboring Ukraine, which spilled over the border last month when what is thought to have been a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile landed in Poland, killing two citizens.
