Dhe federal government approved slightly fewer arms exports in the first three months of this year than in the same period last year. According to preliminary figures, the value of the permitted deliveries from January to March totaled 2.4 billion euros, with half of all export licenses for war weapons being granted, as the Federal Ministry of Economics announced on Monday. In the first quarter of 2022, the value was 2.88 billion euros.
According to the information, Ukraine has been granted permits worth more than 497 million euros to defend against the Russian war of aggression. Only Hungary had a higher value of around 765 million euros. According to the ministry, the deliveries approved to the EU and NATO partners were primarily ammunition for the country’s armed forces.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs emphasized that almost 90 percent of the total approval value relates to close partner countries – which includes not only EU and NATO countries, but also countries with equal status such as Japan or Switzerland and the third countries Ukraine and South Korea. Authorizations worth 262 million euros were allotted to other third countries, of which around 46.8 million euros went to the West African state of Niger alone – mainly for border surveillance aircraft – and 45.9 million euros to the United Arab Emirates for goods to protect against chemical weapons .
Last year, the traffic light government issued licenses for arms exports worth around 8.36 billion euros. That was the second highest amount in the history of the Federal Republic, after 9.35 billion euros in 2021 – a year in which the grand coalition of Union and SPD largely determined the course.
