The ministers said they had tasked their army chiefs to hammer out the rough outlines of the new tank's capabilities, to have a basic document ready at their next meeting in France in September or in the fourth quarter at the latest. 'We aim to send a clear message today, as you phrased it quite nicely, that we want to leave the diplomatic phase of the project behind us and kick off the concrete work,' he underscored, addressing his counterpart Sebastien Lecornu. 'Despite all the doomsayers and rumours, we want this joint project,' German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said, reaffirming the tank was meant to be operational in 2035 at the earliest. In 2017 Berlin and Paris agreed to work on a joint fighter jet under French lead, estimated to cost some 100 billion euros in total, and also a Franco-German tank to succeed the German Leopard 2 and the French Leclerc.īut the project has been plagued by disagreements and delays, further straining ties already burdened by differences over energy topics and the question to what extent Europe should become independent from the U.S. BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and France want to give fresh impetus to a long-delayed project to develop a joint battle tank, their defence ministers said at a meeting in Berlin on Monday, hoping to have a roadmap in place by year's end.

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