For the first time in recent years, the German federal government has approved significant arms supplies to Turkey. This was reported by Spiegel, citing its sources, UNN reported.
Details
It is noted that in recent years, Germany has minimized arms sales to Turkey due to the “cooling” of relations with Ankara for many reasons, but now there is a signal that this trend is changing.
The Federal Security Council, whose meetings are secret, has allegedly recently approved the supply of several hundred million euros worth of various weapons to Turkey , including air defense missiles, torpedoes, and equipment for the modernization of submarines and frigates.
Journalists learned the details from a letter on the subject from the Ministry of Economy to the Bundestag. According to the list, the manufacturer MBDA has received permission to sell 100 air defense missiles for ships to Turkey, which could cost about 100 million euros, as well as SeaHake torpedoes worth 156 million euros.
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In addition, various German arms companies have received the green light to supply Turkey with equipment packages to modernize its U209 submarines and to supply engine parts for corvettes and frigates worth €1.9 million. The estimated value of all the contracts together may be about 336 million euros.
For comparison, in the entire year of 2023, the sale of arms and equipment to Turkey was approved for only €1.22 million in 17 small projects. In the first quarter, arms exports worth €23 million were approved.
The Federal Ministry of Economy hinted that it was ready to approve the export of military equipment to Turkey only for joint projects with the EU and NATO.
Spiegel reminds that Ankara has a lever of pressure on Berlin in the form of illegal migration – Germany is one of the countries where migrants most often want to settle, and Turkey is one of the key transit countries for migrants heading to Europe, and for political reasons may make more or less efforts to counter illegal migration.
