The German government approved the export of nearly €4 billion ($4.5 billion) worth of armaments in the first 10 months of 2021, according to information provided by the Economic Affairs Ministry. The value of weapons and other defence items exported by Germany between January 1 and November 3 equalled €3.78 billion, 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 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 10months of 2020, making a direct comparison impossible. - dpa
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