Shortly before taking office on December 8, the grand coalition approved the sale of three warships and 16 air defense systems.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Last year, the federal government approved arms exports worth 9.35 billion euros, more than ever before. The increase compared to the previous year was 61 percent.
Of the total amount, 9.04 billion euros can be traced back to approvals from the old federal government of the Union and the SPD. In the first three weeks after taking office on December 8, the new federal government of SPD, Greens and FDP only allowed exports for 309 million euros. This emerges from the preliminary annual statistics published by the Federal Ministry of Economics on Tuesday.
The Federal Ministry of Economics, which has been led by the Greens since December, emphasized that the previous government was responsible for the record value. “This federal government provides for a restrictive approach to arms exports and will develop an arms export control law in accordance with the guidelines agreed in the coalition agreement.”
It was already known in December that the old federal government had approved arms exports worth 4.91 billion euros in the last nine days alone. At this point, she was only in office as an executive and was therefore not required to make any more far-reaching political decisions.
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Particularly explosive: The number one recipient country is by far Egypt, which has been criticized for human rights violations and its involvement in the conflicts in Yemen and Libya. The government approved weapons and other armaments worth 4.34 billion euros for the North African country, which was ruled with an iron fist. This is primarily about arms exports in the maritime sector and for air defense.
More: The alliance of great promises: progress or just standstill?