Industry Official: More Countries Sought for German-French-Spanish Defense Export Pact

LONDON -- Members of the German defense industry want the country to expand a trilateral agreement on export controls among Germany, France and Spain, which could help remove defense trade barriers with a range of other nations, both inside and outside the EU.

Manuel Schwab, senior vice president of export controls for German defense firm Diehl, said the Netherlands, Italy and the U.K. have expressed interest in joining the deal. Schwab said he’s also speaking with the German government to “open up this agreement for” others, including possibly outside the continent.

“Everyone's waiting for the next countries to join this agreement, because it's possible,” he said during a defense industry conference last week hosted by SAE Media.

The Franco-German-Spanish Agreement on Defense Export Controls, signed in 2021, calls on the three countries to grant permits for certain controlled defense trade between the nations “without delay,” according to a 2022 report by France’s Ministry for the Armed Forces. The law also includes a de minimis rule for certain defense trade between the nations, Schwab said, and makes it “very hard” for the three governments to cancel a transaction.

Schwab said the deal could help to keep defense trade barriers low even if, for example, a new German political party favors a more “strict” export policy.

“I want you to go home to your governments and tell them there is this trilateral agreement, and it really makes cooperation with German, French and Spanish companies easier,” Schwab said.

The U.S. is currently putting in place new defense trade exemptions with Australia and the U.K. under the AUKUS pact, and has said it's open to collaborating with more countries (see 2409180025 and 2409170030).

Schwab was also asked whether Germany could follow the U.K. in suspending export licenses for Israel, which are meant to curb exports of items for Israel Defense Force operations in Gaza (see 2409030023). Schwab said there has been no official change to German export policy toward Israel, but he has heard from “peers” that certain applications involving Israel are taking longer than usual.

“The application status for Israel is very long-going at the moment, and when I mean long-going, it's not weeks, it's months,” he said. “So, yes, there is a change in German policy towards Israel, but it's not officially published.”