Algeria Is The Largest Customer Of German Weapons

Algeria topped the list of the most importing countries of arms from Germany in 2017, as in the previous year with a total purchases of 1.36 billion euros.

Algeria retained the first place in the list of countries that are mostly importing German arms outside the European Union and NATO during the first six months of 2017, at a cost of more than 1 billion euros.

German News Agency published the report of the German Economy Ministry in June 2017, stating that Algeria ranked first in the import of German weapons outside the European Union, by spending 125 billion euros during the first six months of this year.

Algeria ranked first during the first six months of 2016, in terms of the most importing countries of German weapons, after acquiring a “frigate” from Germany worth one billion euros.

German Economy Ministry said in response to a request from the parliamentary bloc of the “left” party that the total value of German arms’ exports during the period from 2014 to 2017 reached about 1.25 billion euros, with a 21% increase on arms exports that were approved by the coalition government between Christian Alliance and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) during the period from 2010 to 2013.

German arms’ exports to countries outside the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) rose by 47% to reach 14.48 billion euros, an increase of 127 million euros compared to 2016, the ministry said.

The government of the Grand Alliance in Germany, which includes the Christian alliance of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Social Democratic Party, issued permits to export weapons over the past four years, in excess of arms exports that were approved by the previous government, which included the Christian Alliance and the Free Democratic Party.

Commenting on the data, a leftist foreign affairs expert, Stefan Lebisch, said there was still no “pure economic policy to export arms”. 

“The big coalition has not actually closed the doors, it is continuing to open them”, he added. 

Green Party defense expert, Omid Nouripour, also criticized the rise in German arms exports under the Grand Alliance, saying; “The rise in arms exports under independent export assessment procedures was like a bankruptcy declaration”.

Nouripour asserted in statements to the German ARD news channel on Wednesday that this situation did not commensurate with the “exaggerated positive rhetoric” by the Foreign Minister, Gabriel and others, adding that the government should abide by the current rules to achieve the goal.