Philipp Schulze
From January to June, the export of arms and other military equipment was approved for 2.296 billion euros – 17 percent less than in the same period last year. The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Thursday.
The share of controversial exports to countries outside the EU and NATO fell particularly sharply: For these so-called third countries, export permits were issued for 499 million euros – less than a third of the 1.74 billion in the first half of 2020. The exports to these so-called third countries are explosive because of the human rights situation in some of these countries and the involvement in conflicts.
Since individual transactions can be in the high three-digit million range or in extreme cases even in the billions, the statistics are subject to strong fluctuations. Export permits fell continuously between 2016 and 2018, but then jumped to a record value of 8.015 billion euros in 2019. In 2020, they then fell again by more than a quarter to 5.82 billion euros.