German media reported on 29 September that Berlin has approved a number of new weapons export deals with Saudi Arabia, in defiance of a 2018 ban over Riyadh’s brutal war in Yemen. In a letter to the Bundestag, the country’s Economy Minister, Robert Habeck, said that the deals were approved by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz just before his recent visit to Saudi Arabia.
The German export licenses fall under a joint export program with Spain, Italy, and the UK, Habeck’s letter specifies, and will allow Riyadh to buy equipment and ammunition for Eurofighter and Tornado warplanes amounting to around $35 million.Germany, whose arms exports to Saudi Arabia stood at around $1.22 billion in 2012, banned exporting weapons to the kingdom in 2018 as part of a broader ban against countries involved in the war on Yemen, despite some exceptions.
However, a complete ban was enforced the following year after the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.
This ban initially fell under Germany’s policy of not exporting arms to active war zones, a policy that shifted as a result of NATO pressure on Berlin to send weapons to Ukraine.
Related: Chinese Oil Refiners To Ramp Up Output As Demand Rebounds
The weapons export deals come at a time when Germany is scrambling to boost relations with energy exporting countries, as the country faces a major economic catastrophe after losing access to Russian fuel
Scholz set off on a tour of the Gulf states last month, which began in Saudi Arabia on 24 September, in a bid to diversify Germany’s energy supply.
This mission became ever more urgent since the sabotage attack that targeted the Kremlin’s Nord Stream pipelines this week. The loss of Russian fuel has pushed several German industries to the brink of collapse, and it has also forced Berlin to nationalize one of the nation’s main energy providers to save it from bankruptcy.
By Zerohedge.com
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Germany is now scrambling to improve relations with energy exporters in the Arab Gulf and with African countries in its quest to replace Russian gas and oil supplies but to no avail.
Germany is dependent on Russian oil and gas supplies to the tune of 65%. It will fail to replace Russian gas supplies because they are irreplaceable and furthermore there are no alternative sources either. It is facing the prospect of an extremely harsh recession and even a collapse of its economic base because of staggering energy prices.
The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf States in September seeking to secure energy deals with them. But like President Biden before him, he returned empty handed. That is due to three reasons. The first is that Arab Gulf producers are struggling to maintain crude oil production with hardly any spare production capacity. The second reason is that they hardly export gas with the exception of Qatar. And the third reason is that the Arab Gulf producers can easily distinguish between real friends and fair-weather ones.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Global Energy Expert
No shortages of BMWs or Mercedes-Benzs made in the USA for export to the World. Anyhow this very much limp wristed approach to confronting Russian *AGGRESSION* in Ukraine has cost all of Europe *DEARLY* would be an understatement as the entire *WORLD* is enraged by what Putin continues to do worst of all of course being *LOSING* his War of Aggression of course.