The German arms industry exported weapons of war worth around 4.5 billion euros in the current electoral term. Around a quarter of this went to Egypt with EUR 1.081 billion, which has been criticized for human rights violations and its involvement in the conflicts in Yemen and Libya.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey have also been among the ten most important recipient countries for the arms industry since October 2017. This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Defense to a request from left-wing politician Sevim Dagdelen, which is available to the German Press Agency.
In their coalition negotiations after the 2017 federal election, the Union and the SPD agreed on an arms export ban for all countries “directly” involved in the Yemen war. For Saudi Arabia, the decision was partially enforced – but only in November 2018 after the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was critical of the government, in the Saudi consulate general in Istanbul. To this day, however, there are exceptions, for example for joint projects with other countries for Saudi Arabia.
Left strongly criticize the federal government
The exact extent of the war weapons exports to the hard-ruled kingdom since October 2017 is not mentioned in the answer of the Ministry of Defense because it could “enable a re-identification of the companies concerned”. The information has therefore been classified as classified.
Saudi Arabia leads an alliance of Arab states that is fighting alongside the government in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Egypt also belongs to this alliance. On the other hand, Egypt is a strategic partner of Germany in the region and, for example, a close ally in the attempt to find a solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The largest current German armaments project with the most populous North African country is the delivery of submarines for the German company Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.
The left-wing politician Dagdelen also called the arms exports to NATO partner Turkey “unbearable” because of its involvement in the conflicts in Syria and Libya. “In view of the massive export of war weapons to areas of tension, to speak of a cautious arms export policy is a deliberate misleading of the public by the federal government,” she said. (dpa)
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