Spain Sold €12.5 Million Worth Of Weapons To Morocco In 2020

SPAIN Sold €12.5 Million Worth Of Weapons To Morocco In 2020 according to a report

Spain exported €12.5 million (£10.7m) worth of defense materials to Morocco’s Armed Forces last year, including mortar grenades, explosives, detonators, and spare parts for vehicles and aircraft of Spanish manufacture, according to a report on exports of defence material and dual-use for the year 2020, which the Secretary of State for Commerce has sent to Congress, and to which Europa Press has had access.

According to the report, in total, last year’s arms exports totalled €3,622.4 million (£3,098m), which is 10.4 per cent less than in 2019, with Morocco being just one of the clients that the Spanish defense industry supplies, a total of around €80 million (£68.4m) worth of sales being made to the country’s military between 2016 and 2019, and the information in this report will be detailed to Congress on Thursday by Xiana Méndez, the Secretary of State for Commerce.

Although Spain sold €12.5 million to the Moroccan military, NATO countries and the EU are the largest buyers of weapons from Spain, between them accounting for 77.3 per cent of all exports, followed by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and France.

In 2020, Spain also reportedly sold €48.3 million (£41.3m) worth of defence materials to Saudi Arabia, which does cause political controversy, even between PSOE and Podemos, due to the involvement of Saudi Arabia in the conflict in Yemen, according to elespanol.com.

Exports to Saudi Arabia included pistols and ammunition for sports shooting, complete mortar grenades, mortars and an advanced observation system for border surveillance, smoke shots, limpet mines, speedboats for troop transport, multipurpose stabilising platforms, parts and spare parts for Spanish-made refueling aircraft, and transport aircraft, spare parts for combat aircraft derived from a European cooperation program, and unarmed UAVs.

There were also exports to the United Arab Emirates totalling €27.7 million (£23.7m), consisting of pistols, mortar grenades, and aircraft spare parts, whilst Algeria bought €11.9 million (£10.2m) worth of items, and Iraq paid €874,050 (£747,433) for aviation bombs. Another €477,288 (£408,219), worth of bomb bodies for practices, and night vision equipment were exported to Israel.

Requests from Myanmar to purchase a platform control system, a closed circuit television, and an anti-missile system for a frigate worth €22 million (£18.8m) were reportedly denied.

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