Government Strengthens Principles for Arms Exports | ' | '
The federal government wants to ban the sale of German small arms to countries outside the EU and NATO. "The export of small arms to third countries should in principle no longer be approved," says a revised version of the "Political Principles of the Federal Government for the export of weapons of war and other armaments" prepared by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which the Cabinet decided after months of struggle.
Assault rifles and other small arms are often used in civil wars and are considered the deadliest weapons in conflict worldwide as they are relatively easy to access and easy to smuggle and operate. With Heckler & Koch is one of the best-known small arms producers in the world based in Germany.
Measures against indirect exports
According to the new rules, moreover, the whereabouts of exported weapons will be more closely controlled. The same applies to the transfer of technology to build arms factories abroad: the government undertakes, in the update of the 2000 principles, to consider, prior to the granting of export licenses for technology, whether "this will allow the development of foreign arms production" , which is not in line with the restrictive German arms export policy. The aim is to prevent arms companies from exporting technologies to third countries, which will then be resold to other markets without authorization.
Cabinet meeting in the Federal Chancellery in Berlin (archive picture)
On the other hand, the new guidelines also contain passages that could open the door to easing licensing practice. Thus, the expansion of European cooperation in the armaments sector is expressly mentioned as a goal.
The revision of the existing rules, which date from the time of the red-green government, goes back to the coalition agreement of March 2018 and should actually take place at the end of last year. Reason for the delay is that the coalition partners are far apart on the subject. The SPD urges that the supply of defense equipment in crisis regions such as the Middle East be limited as much as possible.
Union sees Alliance capability at risk
By contrast, the EU sees Germany's ability to form coalition at risk as a result of too restrictive an export policy. The background to this is that the strict German rules also endanger European joint projects, for example with Great Britain and France.
The preamble to the political principles has now been added to the aim of working towards convergence in the European defense industry and, in particular, ensuring Germany's "international capacity for cooperation and alliance". France and Britain had massively complained that Berlin was jeopardizing joint arms projects through the German export stop to Saudi Arabia.
In 2018, the government allegedly granted licenses for small arms and small arms parts worth a total of around € 39 million. In 2017, it was still around 48 million euros. Small arms licenses for third countries in 2018 totaled around € 400,000. All countries outside the EU and NATO are considered third countries, with the exception of the NATO equivalent countries Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland.
stu / rb (rtr, dpa, kna, epd)
ليست هناك تعليقات