German parliament approves ECA supported sale of 6 heavy frigates to Egypt

(Middle East Monitor, London , 5 April 2019) The German Parliament Budget Committee has approved export credit guarantees to secure the sale of six heavy frigates worth €2.3 billion (US$2 billion) to Egypt from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. The ships can be supplied with weapons including guided missiles and torpedoes. Green Party Budget expert, Tobias Lindner, criticised the deal and highlighted Egypt’s human rights record. “The government’s arms export policy is becoming increasingly contradictory,” Lindner told Bild, adding that “people have been fighting for weeks against weapons deliveries to Saudi Arabia, while at the same time wanting to deliver frigates to the military dictatorship in Egypt.”