Arms exports from Germany exceed 1.5 billion euros in 2021

Created: 04/22/2022, 07:36

By: Alexander Eser-Ruperti

Germany exported war weapons worth over 1.5 billion euros in 2021, the highest value since 2017. There is sharp criticism.

• Arms exports:

  Germany's exports of war weapons exceeded the value of 1.5 billion euros in 2021.

Highest value in years

: Germany exported war weapons worth 1.51 billion euros in 2021, according to the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection's response to a request from Left-wing MP Sevim Dagdelen.

Shipments of war weapons thus reached their highest level since 2017 and increased for the third year in a row.

In 2020, the volume of exports was still around 1.38 billion euros.

Over 60 percent of the deliveries went to countries outside of NATO and the EU.

The German armaments industry is also one of the war profiteers in the Ukraine conflict, with billions in profits beckoning from the war.

The Düsseldorf group Rheinmetall is one of the beneficiaries: in 2021, the delivery of war weapons from Germany exceeded the value of 1.5 billion euros.

(Archive image) © Imago

The main recipients of exports in 2021 were Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Turkey, Great Britain, Norway and the EU countries Italy, the Netherlands, Latvia and Austria.

Left-wing MP Sevim Dagdelen sharply criticized the deliveries to Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan in particular: “The fact that Turkey is one of the largest recipients of German war weapons, despite illegal invasions of Iraq, Syria and Libya and military threats towards Greece and Cyprus, is encouraging every invocation of a value-based foreign policy by the traffic light government is a mere farce,” said Dagdelen.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock recently claimed such a “value-based foreign policy” for herself.