Germany in secret talks with India over ammunition supply to Ukraine
According to Der Spiegel, Germany is engaged in covert negotiations with India to procure "several hundred thousand" artillery shells for Ukraine through intermediaries.
According to Der Speigel, an informal group of officers, diplomats, and civil servants from the Chancellery, as well as financial and economic departments, convene in Berlin biweekly.
They look into which countries might possess ammunition stockpiles and strategies on persuading them. Government insiders indicate that nearly no political taboo exists within these talks.
Consequently, discussions are under way—conducted in secrecy—on whether these munitions can be acquired via intermediaries.
For instance, India purportedly maintains substantial artillery ammunition reserves, estimated by insiders to be in the hundreds of thousands of rounds. However, the government in New Delhi is publicly reluctant to sell its munitions, maintaining friendly ties with Moscow.
The talks with India are reportedly secret due to its ongoing friendly relations with Moscow.
The German publication also indicates the possibility of similar agreements to support Ukraine with Arab nations, some of which have substantial ammunition reserves.
Experts interviewed by the journalists believe there are opportunities to produce ammunition in the Balkans and certain African countries.
Both Germany and India have not commented on the potential negotiations.
The EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, assured Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that nearly 170,000 shells would be provided by the end of March.
In March 2023, the EU reached an agreement to deliver one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine within a year but fell short of this target. To date, the EU has supplied 355,000 shells, with plans to deliver 1,155,000 by year-end.