Germany Heading Toward New Arms Exports Record

BERLIN (Sputnik) - Germany could break the defence export record it set four years ago when it sold $8.7 billion worth of weapons, according to the data shared by the Economy Ministry at a parliamentary request.

The German government approved $8.1 billion worth of military exports from January to October of this year, the dpa news agency said, citing a response to an information request by The Left Party.

The approval includes 268 licenses for weapons worth $2.6 billion and 9,590 licenses for other military equipment worth $5.6 billion. Fifty-seven export requests worth $17.3 billion were rejected.

The majority of exports went to EU member states and Germany's NATO partner, Hungary, followed by Egypt. Other destinations were Algeria, Qatar, the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, South Korea and Turkey.