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Foreign Minister Baerbock: »Put the arms export policy of the past few years to the test«
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Thomas Trutschel / imago images / photothek
Shortly before the change of government, the old federal government approved armaments exports in the billions.
As a result, arms exports rose to a record value of more than nine billion euros.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) would like to regulate exports more tightly in the traffic light coalition - and combines this with a swipe at the previous government.
"As a coalition, we have made it clear that we are reviewing the arms export policy of the past few years," said Baerbock.
"That is why we are working on an arms export control law that makes it clearer which criteria are used to approve arms exports." The SPD, Greens and FDP want to curb arms exports to so-called third countries outside of the EU and NATO.
Arms exports over 4.91 billion euros allowed in the nine days before the change of government
Baerbock's request could nonetheless trigger friction in the new government.
Because the SPD itself belonged to the GroKo, which issued the export permits before the change of government.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), as finance minister of the old government, was a member of the Federal Security Council, which is responsible for approving sensitive arms exports.
It is particularly piquant that arms exports over 4.91 billion euros were only allowed in the last nine days before the change of government.
At this point in time, the government made up of the Union and the SPD was only in office in a managerial capacity and was therefore no longer required to make any far-reaching political decisions.
Specifically, it was about the sale of three warships and 16 air defense systems from the armaments manufacturers Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and Diehl Defense to Egypt, as SPIEGEL revealed.
This met with criticism, especially from the Greens - they would have expected to be better informed by the SPD.
The Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was apparently not informed separately by her predecessor Heiko Maas from the SPD.
It is unclear whether Scholz included his current coalition partners in the last-minute permits.
At the request of the dpa news agency, the Ministry of Economics of the Greens Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, which is responsible for arms exports, merely stated that the previous government was "fully responsible" for export decisions.
The left-wing foreign politician Sevim Dağdelen sharply criticized the behavior of the current Chancellor.
"Olaf Scholz has done a real crook in the executive government and impressively demonstrated how unscrupulous the SPD's criticism of unscrupulous arms exports, especially of dictatorships and authoritarian regimes, ultimately remains," she said.
"This is a heavy burden for the new traffic light government under Scholz."
The CDU foreign politician Roderich Kiesewetter defended the last-minute permits against it.
»The acting federal government took place within the valid legal framework.
That is why the critical voices of the Greens and the Left are nothing more than crocodile tears. "
Kiesewetter called for Germany's security interests to be taken into account in the upcoming reform of arms export control.
»It is in the interests of Germany if the countries in the Middle East continue to allow themselves to be equipped by EU states in their armaments policy.
It cannot be in our interest if these states are in the future in China or Russia. "
For a long time, nothing came after Egypt in the ranking of the most important recipient countries.
The USA is number two with an export volume of 980 million euros.
It is followed by the Netherlands (818 million euros), Singapore (630 million) and Great Britain (213 million).
The new government also approved arms exports in the first seven days of its term in office.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the amount is comparatively very small: 3679 euros.
ulz / dpa