DW — Germany has claimed that its arms export policy is “responsible and restrictive” after a new export report shows a dip in sales. But one of the customers is Qatar, a country Donald Trump called a “funder of terrorism.”
Not only that, the first four months of 2017 showed a similar drop on the same period in 2016 – 2.42 billion euros compared to 3.3 billion from January to April 2016.
The Economy Ministry is run by Brigitte Zypries of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which has made reducing Germany’s arms exports one of its key policies – and so far things haven’t exactly gone to plan. Since the current government took office in 2013, the total number of approved sales has risen, and even 2016’s 6.85 billion euros is the second-highest turnover for Germany’s arms companies.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Economy Ministry was keen to suggest that there were plenty of mitigating details behind the figures. For one thing, it said, these sales included items that weren’t used for killing people – such as mine-clearing equipment and a set of armored vehicles for transporting civilians delivered to UNICEF in Syria.
The government was keen to explain this figure with an increase in sales to “partners,” the term used for fellow members of NATO as well as EU members. So-called “third countries,” the ministry said, were getting about as many guns as before.
There have been major sales to Egypt (a submarine), and Algeria (a warship)
Some 790.5 million euros worth of weapons were also sold to Qatar – a country involved in thewar in Yemen and now involved in a crisis with its only neighbour Saudi Arabia. US President Donald Trump declared last week that, in his opinion, “The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.”
Germany has also reduced it’s arms exports to Turkey in response to the continued imprisonment of German citizens.
