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Weapons for 4.9 billion euros: German government approves fewer arms exports in 2020

2020-12-18T06:46:41.764Z


This year Germany approved arms exports of almost five billion euros. That is less than in the record year 2019 - but the exports go to some controversial recipients.


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Israeli submarine of the "Dolphin" class from German production

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GALI TIBBON / AFP

Arms deliveries to Egypt are controversial because of the human rights situation and the country's participation in the war coalition in Yemen, but the German government has not approved higher arms exports to any other country in 2020.

Exports of war weapons for 716 million euros to the North African state were approved last year, according to a response from the Federal Ministry of Economics to a request from the Greens, which the "Handelsblatt" has received.

Specifically, Germany recently agreed to the delivery of another Thyssenkrupp Maine Systems submarine.

Like the weapons system built in Kiel, numerous other weapons go to third countries that do not belong to either the EU or NATO.

In second and third place of the largest recipient countries, according to »Handelsblatt«, is Israel with 508 million euros and Qatar with 196 million euros.

15 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks with 16,000 cartridges are allowed to go to Qatar, where the soccer World Cup is to take place in 2022.

Even with individual export permits, i.e. all arms exports including war weapons, Egypt was ahead with 751.5 million euros, followed by Israel with 556.5 million euros and the USA with 464.6 million euros.

Greens: "Insane in terms of security policy"

In 2020, the federal government issued an export license for arms exports worth a total of 4.9 billion euros.

That was around three billion euros less than in 2019, when the federal government set a new record of eight billion euros.

The Green armaments expert Katja Keul criticizes the federal government.

The decrease compared to the previous year is not reassuring.

"In any case, it does not correspond to a responsible arms export policy if the list of main customers for German war weapons is headed annually by states in the powder keg of the Middle East," she said, according to the newspaper.

"The last approval from the Security Council for 15 tanks to Qatar alone is insane in terms of security policy."

The data for approval values ​​from 2020 are preliminary figures up to December 9th, which could change due to corrections and error corrections, the Federal Government said in its answer.

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Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2020-12-18

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