dpa/taz | The volume of arms exports approved by the federal government fell slightly last year to around 12 billion euros. Of this, around 10.7 billion euros or around 90 percent went to EU or NATO states and close partners, according to preliminary figures published by the Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin on Friday.
The total value consists of around 5.6 billion euros for war weapons and 6.4 billion euros for other military equipment, the ministry said. In the previous two years, the volume of approved deliveries had increased 13.33 billion euros (2024) and 12.15 billion euros (2023) Record values reached.
Once again, Ukraine was at the top in 2025 with permits issued worth more than 2 billion euros. It is supported with money and arms deliveries in order to… Defensive battle against Russia However, being able to exist counts as a so-called third country. On the other hand, Japan, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand are on an equal footing with NATO when it comes to arms exports.
Sweden and Norway follow Ukraine with deliveries worth 1.38 and 1.01 billion euros, respectively. Ranked 4th on the German arms export list Turkey follows with around 742,000 million euros. Around 10 percent of arms exports (1.2 billion euros) were approved for deliveries to other third countries. These include South Korea and Singapore.
Criticism of possible arms deals with the Gulf region
Meanwhile, after Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU)’s visit to the Gulf region, an alliance of several organizations (“Aktion Aufschrei”) criticized possible arms deals and arms cooperation with autocratically ruled states.
It is a serious mistake to facilitate arms exports to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, stated spokesman Jürgen Grässlin. “The corresponding ‘general suspicion’, which the Chancellor would like to put aside, exists in a number of specific known cases,” said Grässlin. These ranged from the most serious human rights violations to armed conflicts with neighboring countries and the proliferation of weapons to other conflict regions.
Weapons exports to the three Arab countries were handled very cautiously by previous federal governments for a long time due to the human rights situation and involvement in regional conflicts such as the Yemen war. Saudi Arabia was even subject to a ban on arms exports for years.
Merz for less restrictive arms exports
The course has already been relaxed by the traffic light government, which cleared the way for the export of more Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia at the beginning of 2024. There has also been interest there for a long time in the A400M transport aircraft from Airbus. This also applies to the United Arab Emirates. Qatar is already a good customer of the German arms industry and recently received a delivery of Boxer infantry fighting vehicles.
At his Trip to the Gulf region this week Chancellor Merz had promised the autocratic rulers there that he would be even less restrictive and, above all, more predictable when it came to arms exports. “Our partners see this as an important signal of our cooperation,” he said.
“The signal sent by this Chancellor’s trip is the wrong one,” said Vincenzo Petracca, a member of the Action Group Service for Peace (AGDF). “It does not point in the direction of peace, stability and security, but rather in the direction of military escalation and turning a blind eye to serious human rights violations.” In view of an increasingly confrontational global political situation, a restrictive arms export policy is more than necessary.