Why is there a split in the ruling coalition of Germany over the supply of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia

Germany’s ruling coalition is in conflict over the supply of Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. This was reported on July 1, citing anonymous sources, by the newspaper Welt am Sonntag. According to her, some partners in the government coalition are dissatisfied with the government’s intention to allow the supply of components for these combat aircraft. The country’s Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who heads the liberal Free Democratic Party, spoke in favor of deliveries.

The Greens, who in the current government control the ministries of economy and foreign affairs, as well as a number of social democrats, opposed it.

Eurofighter Typhoon fighters are a joint development of Italy, Great Britain, Spain and Germany. The cost of German-made components in aircraft reaches one-third. The disputes over the supply of these fighters to Saudi Arabia are related to the fact that since 2018, the supply of arms to Saudi Arabia has been banned in Germany, including under already approved contracts. The reason was, among other things, the murder in Istanbul of Saudi opposition journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Saudis ordered 72 Eurofighter Typhoons back in 2000 under a contract of 10 billion British pounds. Under an initial agreement with the British company BAE Systems, Riyadh received 24 ready-made fighters, while the remaining 48 were to be assembled in Saudi Arabia itself.

The production capacity of the monarchy was not enough to implement such conditions, so in 2013 the parties entered into a new agreement. According to him, for an increased cost of the transaction, 48 aircraft were delivered directly from the enterprise in the British Wharton.

The current discussion in Germany, explains researcher at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies Mikhail Barabanov, concerns an additional agreement for the supply of another 48 aircraft, concluded between Saudi Arabia and the UK in March 2018. The ban on the purchase of weapons from Germany mentioned above in connection with the murder of Khashoggi became to operate from November of the same year.

Discussions around the supply of arms to Saudi Arabia demonstrate that a similar decision regarding Ukraine could not fundamentally change the model of Germany’s behavior on the issue of supplying weapons to conflict zones, said Artem Sokolov, a researcher at the Institute of International Studies at MGIMO. Germany indeed supplies weapons to Kyiv, but does not want to interact with its other partners on the same terms.

This is partly due to the unpreparedness of the German elites for changes in security policy and arms exports, as well as the inconsistent course of the government. Berlin, the expert adds, continues to hesitate and act against the interests of both voters and the country’s economy as a whole, preferring transatlantic and personal interests to them. No one will make excuses for such a strange political course, Sokolov believes.

The German government is openly pursuing a policy of double standards, says Alexander Kamkin, senior researcher at IMEMO RAS. The supply of weapons to Ukraine meets the interests of the military-industrial complex, which, compared with other sectors of the German economy, shows steady growth. Along with this, Western propaganda declared Ukraine a victim and the only right side in the conflict, thus legitimizing assistance to it.

Unilateral support for Ukraine runs counter to the “state pacifism of the FRG”, but this is unlikely to stop those who want to make money in the military-industrial complex. As for the actions of the government and specifically the “Greens”, they, according to the expert, have long abandoned the consistent course. The “Greens” seek to work out the political order of the American multinational corporations that sponsor them, and act simultaneously as the instigators of the conflict in Ukraine and as the gravediggers of the German economy. This, Kamkin concludes, explains their apparently illogical actions in the current situation.