Germany Eyes Combat Helicopter Deal With Pakistan: Report

Berlin, April 30, IRNA – Germany is planning to export 40 out-of-service combat helicopters to Pakistan, the news magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday. The Hamburg-based paper quoted German Deputy Defense Minister Thomas Kossendey as saying in a letter to the parliamentary defense committee that such an arms export was possible even though German laws bar the sale of weapons to crisis regions. German arms sales more than doubled during the last five years, ranking the country behind just the US and Russia on the list of the worldˈs largest weaponry exporters. Berlin has also massively stepped up weapon sales to the highly militarized Mideast region, especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Human rights groups have lambasted the arms deals, citing major human rights deficits in these despotic countries./end