After the PLO's defeat in Lebanon in 1982, East Germany remained a loyal friend to it and to the Arab states of the rejection front. On May 11, 1983, in Damascus, General Werner Fleißner, the GDR's deputy minister of defense, and General Samil Al-Akel, the director of logistics of the Syrian army, signed an agreement for “cooperation in the military field.” Five years later, on April 12, 1988, the two governments renewed the agreement and extended the training of Syrian military forces in East Germany until December 31, 1995. On April 10, 1984, Dr. Klaus Bartsch of the East German Defense Ministry signed a two-year agreement with Abdul Menem Al Amouri, the PLO's military attaché, in its embassy in East Berlin to offer medical care in East Germany to members of “the armed forces of the Palestinian Revolution.” The agreement called for treatment of five wounded officers of the PLO in East Germany each year in the military hospitals of the East German armed forces. Beginning in 1984 as well, the East Germans agreed to undertake “research in flight medicine” (flugmedizinische Untersuchung) with up to 25 “pilots (Flugzeugführen) of the armed forces of the Palestinian Revolution.” As the PLO did not have its own air force, the medical treatment of PLO “pilots” raised the question of whose planes they were planning to fly.

On September 25, 1984, the East German Ministry of Foreign Trade signed an agreement with Syria to deliver $50 million of “special equipment” to Syria's Ministry of Defense. Among the items to be delivered were “chemical warfare” equipment including a “vehicle of special treatment … chemical-radiological reconnaissance apparatus,” and “equipment for chemical practice field.” The agreement also called for delivery of ammunition for small arms, submachine gun parts, and spare parts for small arms; tools and spare parts for tanks and BMP-1, a Soviet amphibious-tracked infantry-fighting vehicle; spare parts for armored personnel carriers; “tanks of Soviet origin” and patrol boats. For the Syrian air force, the East Germans agreed to develop radar repair workshops, send a remote control system for signals and navigation equipment, repair aircraft engines, send aircraft spare parts, and deliver technical equipment to maintain and repair runways and aircraft maintenance hangars. Medical services included field hospitals, ambulances, field laboratories, mobile X-ray facilities, and medical instruments and equipment.