As of: December 16, 2021 2:43 p.m.
Shortly before the end of the Merkel government, the grand coalition approved two more arms exports to Egypt. This is politically explosive, because Egypt has come under massive criticism, among other things, for human rights violations.
Just a few days before the change of government, the Merkel government apparently approved two controversial arms exports to Egypt. The news agency dpa and the “Spiegel” report, citing a letter from the then Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier to Bundestag President Bärbel Bas. The letter is dated December 7th – one day after the swearing-in of the new cabinet under Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
In the letter, Altmaier informs about a total of three arms exports that the Federal Security Council has approved: Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems is therefore allowed to deliver three frigates to Egypt. The Baden-Württemberg company Diehl Defense has been approved to deliver 16 air defense systems to Egypt. And finally, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems is allowed to export a 218 SG submarine to Singapore.
Egypt embroiled in wars and conflicts
Particularly controversial are the exports to Egypt, which was already in second place in the arms export rankings last year with an export volume of 763.8 million euros. The North African country is ruled authoritarian and has been criticized for human rights violations and its involvement in the conflicts in Yemen and Libya.
Such exports are approved by the Federal Security Council, to which the Chancellor and seven ministers belong. This also includes the finance minister – in this case the current Federal Chancellor Scholz. The export licenses, however, do not describe the actual exports of armaments, but relate to future arms deals. But they are regarded as a yardstick for the fundamental course in armaments policy.
Many exports to third countries
In total, the old federal government approved the export of armaments worth 5.82 billion euros last year. Half of this amount was accounted for by permits for so-called third countries outside the EU and NATO, as can be seen in the arms export report of the Joint Conference on Church and Development (GKKE) presented in Berlin. Deliveries of this kind to third countries are particularly problematic because weapons from Germany repeatedly end up in crisis and conflict regions.
The report also highlights export permits to Egypt as particularly problematic. In the meantime, the export of armaments to third countries can no longer be regarded as exceptions – it is more a matter of the rule: “Despite different resolutions by the last federal government, states that commit serious human rights violations or violate international humanitarian law will continue to sell German armaments supplies “, complains the Protestant GKKE chairman Martin Dutzmann.
Praise for arms control traffic light plans
In this context, the churches expressly welcomed the plans of the traffic light coalition for a national arms export control law. In the coalition agreement, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP announce a stronger control of arms exports.
In a corresponding law, the common position of the EU on arms exports as well as national specifications on the export of war weapons and other armaments and an expansion of controls on the end-use of German arms exports are to be anchored. Exceptions can only be made in “justified individual cases that must be documented in a publicly comprehensible manner,” it says. Export permits for armaments to states that are involved in the Yemen war are excluded. That should then also apply to Egypt.