German weapons exports reach €4b for 2021 so far

The German government approved the export of nearly 4 billion euros worth of armaments in the first 10 months of 2021, according to information provided by the Economic Affairs Ministry, reported dpa.

The value of weapons and other defence items exported by Germany between January 1 and November 3 equalled 3.78 billion euros, according to the data. Of that, 27 per cent went to countries outside the European Union. Such exports are controversial due to the poor human right records in some destination countries.

The information was released following a request made by Sevin Dagdelen, a lawmaker with the hard-left party Die Linke. The report has been seen by dpa.

German arms exports had a record year in 2019, with weapons worth more than 8 billion dollars delivered to overseas customers. That shrank to 5.82 billion euros in 2020. Based on the information released, the number is set to shrink by 17 per cent in 2021. However, there is no available export information for the first 10 months of 2020, making a direct comparison impossible.

The largest market for German defence products was the US, which ordered 948 million euros' worth, followed by the Netherlands (721.6 million euros) and Britain (190.1 million euros).

Next on the list is Egypt, a country that has been criticized in the past for its involvement in regional conflicts, which spent 181.1 million euros on German weaponry. Fifth place went to Brazil, which spent 134.1 million euros.