ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th January, 2023) Greek Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos and his German counterpart, Christine Lambrecht, discussed by telephone on Monday the progress in Greek deliveries of the BMP-1 armored infantry vehicles to Ukraine and their replacement with German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicles, the Greek Defense Ministry said.
"Issues related to the implementation of the agreement on the supply of the BMP-1 armored combat vehicles to Ukraine by our country along with their replacement with German-made Marder armored combat vehicles were also discussed," the ministry said in a statement.
The telephone conversation between the two ministers also focused on bilateral defense cooperation and the development of events in Ukraine, the statement read.
In May 2022, Greece and Germany agreed that Athens would receive an equal number of the Marder armored vehicles instead of the East German-made BMP-1 vehicles sent to Ukraine, which were received by Greece in 1994. As of early November, Greece received 10 Marders out of 40. During the visit of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias to Kiev on October 19, 2022, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Greece had begun transferring BMP-1 vehicles to Ukraine.
