According to the news of the German News Agency (DPA), the German Ministry of Economy, responding to the Left Party’s parliamentary question, announced that the government approved the sale of weapons and military equipment worth approximately 9.04 billion euros this year.
Thus, Germany’s sales of weapons and military equipment in 2021 broke a record. The previous annual record in Berlin’s sales of weapons and military equipment was 8.02 billion euros in 2019.
In the response, it was noted that Egypt was the country to which Germany sold the most weapons and military equipment this year.
Berlin approved the sale of 4.34 billion euros of weapons and equipment to Egypt.
The former German federal government, under Angela Merkel, had approved two exports of precision weapons to Egypt shortly before the change of government.
The Federal Security Council, which met under the chairmanship of Merkel, approved the sale of three “MEKO A-200 EN” class frigates of Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and 16 “IRIS-T SLS / SLX type” air defense systems of Diehl Defense to Egypt.
The German government also approved ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems’ export of “218 SG” class submarines to Singapore.
Egypt ranked second in Germany’s arms sales after Hungary with 763.8 million euros in 2020.
The sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, which is alleged to have carried out attacks in which civilians were killed in Yemen, is causing controversy in Germany.
Germany’s arms and military equipment sales decreased by 27.4% in 2020 compared to the previous year and became 5 billion 820 million euros.
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