ANKARA

The defense ministers of France and Germany signed Friday an agreement to jointly produce a new generation of battle tanks, according to an official statement.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu “signed an agreement on the #MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) programme to speed up the #MGCS land combat system of the future,” the French ministry said on X.

“Among other things, this regulates the distribution of industrial responsibilities,” it added.

Lecornu earlier told the broadcaster France 2 that his country aims to create a Franco-German combat tank by 2040, in the wake of a "very strong international competition on land."

The two neighboring countries reached an agreement on jointly developing a next-generation battle tank, Pistorius announced on March 22.

He underlined that the Franco-German battle tank MGCS will not be a modernized version of the French Leclerc or the German Leopard 2 tanks, but a completely new model, with advanced capabilities.

“We have agreed on the distribution of all tasks for this major project as to what Germany and France will be doing,” the German minister added.

Pistorius also said the production of the next-generation battle tank would be split equally by the defense industries of the participating nations.