Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Islamabad (Urdu Point DW news advertisment February 09, 2022) Russia has about 100,000 troops stationed on its border with Ukraine, according to Western intelligence. The point of view of Ukraine and the West is that this is a clear indication of a military threat from Russia. That is why Western countries are supporting Ukraine with weapons and other equipment.
Germany has so far sent 5,000 troops to Ukraine. The consignment is not enough for the Kiev government as a precautionary measure. Last Friday, Ukraine officially asked the Berlin government to send defense weapons and ammunition, but Berlin has reportedly rejected the request. Both Chancellor Olaf Schulz and Foreign Minister Analina Bierbock have cited the German government's political rules and regulations that arms will not be exported to crisis areas.
The coalition government, comprising the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Green Party of Environmentalists and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), wrote in the agreement: Should be brought to light in a very transparent manner. "
Is it true?
Claim: The German government has for a long time taken a clear stand on this issue. Germany will not send any weapons to the crisis areas or provide lethal weapons to Ukraine.
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Germany: Will the new government end controversial arms deals?
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"This means that Germany investigates each case individually," Christian MÙ„ling, a German defense and security expert with the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), told Deutsche Welle. The decision is always made according to the situation.
The Stockholm Institute for Peace Research (SIPRI) also told Deutsche Welle that Germany had recently sent weapons to crisis areas. According to Peter Wiesemann, an expert at the institute, "it is not true that Germany did not provide arms to countries and elements in crisis. There are many examples where we can see that German weapons have been specifically exported.
Of course, this was done under an agreement with the Berlin government, or with special support, or by the German government itself. "
Hungary and the United States are the largest buyers of German weapons since 2017
German weapons in the war in Yemen
Egypt has been the fifth largest recipient of German weapons since 2010, according to SIPRI's Trend Indicator arms export estimates.
According to data from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, between January 1, 2021 and December 14, 2021, exports of 4.34 billion euros were approved for Egypt alone. Most of these approvals came in the last days of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's term. This is despite the fact that Egypt has been criticized for widespread human rights abuses and the Egyptian military's involvement in the Yemeni and Libyan conflicts.
Peter Weizmann says Egypt is probably using German weapons in Yemen and Libya. He said that the weapons supplied to Egypt by Germany could be divided into two parts. There is an air defense system which he thinks is hardly related to the war in Yemen but the other type is related to warplanes.
According to Weizmann, "Frigates can certainly play a key role in the war in Yemen. We have seen it before in the war in Yemen and it has an important connection with the naval blockade. "
Germany has sold more than a billion weapons to the Middle East
Weizmann says such large-scale arms shipments help legitimize Egypt's military government and strengthen its hand.
Difficult partnership with Turkey
Turkey, a member of the Western defense alliance NATO, is also a controversial buyer of German weapons.
Christian MÙ„ling, an expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), says the country has changed a lot in recent decades. In the past, it was wrong for Germany to supply arms to this country. Mouling argues, however, that "the government has the right to make estimates, but these estimates can be wrong."
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Germany has been supplying arms to Turkey for many years and is in the tens of millions of euros, despite the fact that Turkey has been widely criticized for its human rights abuses and the United Nations Includes countries that intervene in wars by providing weapons, for example in Libya.
For decades, the Ankara government has carried out severe military operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, both inside Turkey and in other countries.
Drones for the German army, of course, but without weapons
Result:
Germany set its own rules for not supplying weapons to crisis areas, but did not adhere to them consistently. On several occasions, the Berlin government has allowed the supply of weapons to countries that are themselves parties to a conflict or are considered crisis areas.
Tatiana Klog (KM / MM)
