The German government has accorded an export credit guarantee to Turkey of some DM500 million (€255 million, $240 million) for the sale of a German-built naval patrol ship, the economy ministry said Friday.
A spokeswoman confirmed a report in Bild newspaper to this effect, saying the credit had been granted in the summer of last year. She declined to identify the German firm, which is to build the vessel. The sale of military material to Turkey is politically delicate in Germany because of human rights considerations.
The delivery of a prototype tank last year at the insistence of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping brought sharp tensions with the junior party in the ruling coalition, the Greens, to which Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer belongs. ¯ (AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
