The Cabinet yesterday approved an Army bid to buy 100 armoured personnel carriers from Ukraine in a government-to-government purchase deal.
The Cabinet members spent more than half an hour question-ing representatives from the Army and discussed problems regarding the purchase of BTR-3EI wheeled APCs before giving it the green light.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva asked the Army repre-sentatives why Germany did not sell to Ukraine the Deutz engine that was originally specified in the purchase deal, according to a Government House source. The prime minister also asked whether the contract could be scrapped if vehicles with the new engine, made by German compa-ny MTU, did not pass Army tests.
Army representatives told ministers that the German gov-ernment decided not to sell Deutz engines to Ukraine for the APCs because of Berlin's policy of not selling armament to any country subject to political unrest, accord-ing to the source.
Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwannakiri said he had learned that a Muslim organisa-tion had asked Germany not to sell the engines for the APCs because the vehicles could be used in suppression of Muslims in Thailand's deep South.
The head of the Army's ord-nance department told Cabinet a recent test showed the MTU engine was of better quality than the Deutz unit. He also said a con-tract term allowed the Thai side to cancel the deal if any of the delivered vehicles did not meet standard requirements.
Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn told a press conference that the pur-chase project started during the Samak Sundaravej government in 2007.