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Germany remains the fourth largest arms exporter.

In the period from 2016 to 2020, Germany exported 21 percent more armaments than in the previous five-year period.

But for the first time in a long time, business in the arms industry is showing signs of braking in 2020 - worldwide.

According to calculations by the Swedish peace research institute Sipri, this did not change the order of the largest arms exporters with the USA, Russia, France, Germany and China at the top.

The group of five is responsible for three quarters of global arms exports.

However, there are some shifts among the top suppliers.

The share of the USA in global arms exports grew from 32 to 37 percent in a five-year comparison, while that of Russia plummeted from 26 to 20 percent.

The winners included France, which now has 8.2 percent of global arms exports, and Germany, whose share rose from 4.5 to 5.5 percent.

In 2020, weapons with a total value of around 28 billion dollars were exported worldwide.

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In their analysis, the peace researchers consider a five-year period in order to smooth out annual fluctuations.

Nevertheless, there are notable indications in the current report.

The Sipri experts point out that arms exports worldwide fell by 16 percent in 2020 and were even 20 percent below the annual average from 2011 to 2019.

It is suspected that these could be corona effects because weapons production or sales stalled.

However, there were also opposing effects in 2020.

Exports from the USA and France in particular increased.

According to the federal government, arms exports in Germany fell in 2020, from eight billion euros in 2019 to 4.9 billion euros.

The world's largest arms buyers, i.e. importers, included Saudi Arabia in the period from 2016 to 2020, followed by India, Egypt and Australia.

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The main buyers of German weapons in the past five years have been South Korea (24 percent share), Algeria and Egypt.

Above all naval ships and in particular eleven submarines ensured the increase in the five-year period.

For example, six submarines were delivered to Turkey and three copies to Egypt.

The main buyer for US arms exports is Saudi Arabia.

Almost a quarter of all US arms exports went there.

An export ban applies to German arms companies in the Kingdom, while Great Britain and France, for example, are among the largest arms suppliers alongside the USA.

The example shows how differently foreign and security policy is handled in relation to Saudi Arabia.

While there is a debate in Europe about sovereignty also in relation to military capabilities, de facto there is still a great deal of dependence.

According to Sipri, Europe's arms imports between 2016 and 2020 were twelve percent higher than in the previous five years.

The main supplier was the USA, for example with its F-35 fighter aircraft.