Germany approved arms exports for more than eight billion euros

Enlarge image

Chancellor Olaf Scholz in front of a Cheetah tank: exports to Ukraine

Photo: Marcus Brandt / dpa

Germany supports Kyiv with arms so that Ukraine can defend itself against Russia in the war.

This is also reflected in the figures for arms exports for 2022: the federal government approved arms deliveries for at least 8.35 billion euros this year.

That is already the second highest value in the history of the Federal Republic.

Only last year was the number even higher at 9.35 billion euros.

More than a quarter of the weapons and military equipment delivered from January 1 to December 22 went to Russia-invaded Ukraine.

This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Economics to a request from left-wing MP Sevim Dağdelen.

Even without Ukraine, exports worth more than six billion euros were approved.

For comparison: in the 16 years of Chancellor Angela Merkel's (CDU) government, the 6 billion mark was exceeded only five times.

Who is Germany supplying arms to?

Deliveries to Ukraine make up the largest share of German arms exports.

However, the high overall value of export licenses is not solely due to this.

• Germany approved armaments deliveries for

  Ukraine

  worth 2.24 billion euros

  , including many heavy weapons such as

  30 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks

  ,

  14 Panzerhaubitzen 2000

  (heavy artillery pieces),

  five multiple rocket launchers

  and the

  Iris-T anti-aircraft

  system .

Four NATO countries follow in the ranking of the most important recipient countries:

• the

  Netherlands

  with

  1.83 billion

  ,

• the

  USA

  with

  863.7 million euros

  ,

• Great Britain

  with

  453 million euros

• and Hungary

  , governed by much-criticized Prime Minister Viktor Orbán,

  with

  249.2 million euros

  .

,

and

are among the top ten

three other countries that do not belong to the EU or NATO.

However, Australia is put on an equal footing with the NATO countries in the export statistics.

So far this year, armaments worth 3.23 billion euros have been approved for third countries outside the EU, NATO and equivalent countries, including more than two thirds for Ukraine.

In the coalition negotiations at the end of 2021, at the urging of the SPD and the Greens, the traffic light government actually planned to reduce arms exports and introduce a control law for this purpose.

Then came the turnaround with the Ukraine war.

The self-imposed ban on arms deliveries to war zones was quashed by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in his "Zeitenwende" speech on February 27 - a break with principles that have been in place for decades.

criticism from the left

The left-wing politician Dağdelen sharply criticizes the arms export figures: »The cabinet of the SPD, FDP and Greens is responsible for the second-highest exports of weapons and war equipment of all time.

Instead of restricting armaments exports as promised, the traffic light unscrupulously delivers armaments to war and crisis zones and benefits from conflicts and deaths.«

In 2021, the grand coalition of the Union and SPD had allowed exports for almost five billion euros in the last nine days of its term, although it was only in office as a manager.

This was the only way to achieve the record value of more than nine billion euros at the end of the year.

At that time, the share of exports to third countries in the total value was significantly higher at 63.6 instead of the current 38.7 percent.

The high share in 2021 was mainly due to Egypt, for which the Merkel government approved warships, air defense systems and other armaments for 4.34 billion euros.

ptz/dpa