Germany’s arms export reached a record high in 2023
At a time when the German army is suffering from a lack of funding and poor armament, German arms export numbers have emerged, recording a high number during the year 2023.
The arms bill that the German government allowed to be exported this year reached an unprecedented record, exceeding 11.7 billion Euros.
This came in a response from the Ministry of Economy to an interrogation by a member of Bundestag from the former leftist political group, Sarah Wagenknecht.
The German Ministry of Economy stated in its response that the value of German arms exports broke the previous record achieved by German arms exports of 9.35 billion Euros in 2021, as the value of arms exports this year exceeded the previous record by 25%, by mid-December.
The rate of increase in the value of arms exports this year reached 40% compared to last year’s exports.
The German Ministry of Economy explained that more than a third of the export bill (4.15 billion Euros) went to Ukraine to confront the Russian invasion.
These figures relate to the time period between the beginning of January and December 12, during which the German government issued export permits for military weapons worth 6.15 billion Euros and other armament equipment worth 5.67 billion Euros.
About 90% of these exports went to countries in the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Ukraine, in addition to countries that are dealt with regarding arms export controls in the same or similar way as Berlin deals with NATO countries, including, for example, Japan, Australia, and South Korea.
The German government allowed the export of weapons and other armament equipment of local production worth 1.18 billion Euros to countries that fall under a third classification other than the previous two classifications, and these countries include, for example, Israel and the UAE.
In turn, the representative who presented the questioning criticized the record level reached by the value of arms exports, and believed that the government must begin pumping the necessary investments into infrastructure and education in Germany instead of arms exports for which the people here are forced to pay dearly.
