China’s new export to Peru: Tanks
December 10th, 2009
Peru’s defense minister Rafael Rey said his country is in talks with China to purchase “a fleet” of tanks made in China to replace its current 1970s Soviet-era line-up. The country is also planning buy Super Tucano planes from Brazil’s Embraer to fight drug trafficking in the Amazon.
Both Rey and Prime Minister Javier Velasquez were quick to dismiss any notion of a budding military arms race with arch-rival Chile. Times are sensitive given last month’s espionage controversy and 100-plus years of general bad blood stemming from a border dispute. However, the ministers did not mention what Peru’s leading newspaper La Republica reported recently: That in July, a Peruvian military delegation traveled to China to evaluate the MBT-2000 tank model. The result: The Peruvians were initially turned off by the MBT-2000 because they didn’t think it would be able to defeat the Chilean Leopard 24A.
Doesn’t exactly assuage fears.
Anyway, how do you go about closing an arms deal for a buyer on the fence, you may ask? From AP:
Rafael Rey told The Associated Press that the army is testing MBT-2000 tanks brought from China, but wants a better-equipped model of the tank. Peru showed the tanks in a parade on Tuesday.
Rey didn’t say how many tanks Peru would buy. The Lima newspaper La Republica reported that it plans to buy 80 to 120 tanks and has evaluated Chinese, German, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish models.
A parade! There’s a novel way to evaluate military hardware. Tank parades in Beijing during October’s National Day 60-year anniversary and now Chinese tank parades in “the US’s backyard”?
Cue US Congressional fear-mongering.