Actually, the government had planned to reduce arms exports. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine thwarted the plans. The Scholz government’s exports of weapons and equipment reach near-record levels, with the majority going to Ukraine.
The German government has approved arms exports for at least 8.35 billion euros this year. This is already the second-highest figure in the history of the Federal Republic. Only last year was the figure even higher, at 9.35 billion euros. More than a quarter of the weapons and military equipment delivered from Jan. 1 to Dec. 22 went to Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia. That’s according to a response from the Federal Ministry of Economics to a question from left-wing MP Sevim Dagdelen.
At the insistence of the SPD and the Greens, the coalition government had actually resolved to reduce arms exports and to introduce a control law to this end. Then came the turnaround with the Ukraine war. The self-imposed ban on arms deliveries to war zones was rescinded by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in his “turn of the century” speech on February 27 – a break with principles that had been in place for decades.
Since then, arms deliveries worth 2.24 billion euros have been approved for Ukraine, 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 air defense system. However, the high total value of export licenses is not solely due to this.
Source of the news: https://www.n-tv.de/politik/
