Doha – Spain increased its arms exports in 2024 compared to the previous year by 1,264.77% and achieved a total value of € 21 million compared to € 1.5 million in 2023.
According to the Spanish news agency Okdiario, the analyzed Data from the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Trade, this significant increase comes at a time when NATO urgent Member countries like Spain to increase their domestic defense spending.
The majority of these exports consisted of bombs, grenades and torpedoes, which rose from € 1 million in 2023 to € 12.8 million in 2024, which corresponds to an increase of 1,096.33%.
The most important growth was recorded in parts and accessories for weapons, which ran from € 10,015 to € 8 million, which marked an exceptional increase of 79,739.22%.
The data also show that exports of the rifle, the weapon and the jumping gun according to Morocco rose by 10% in 2024 and reached € 205,564. In contrast, the weapons imports of Spain from Morocco remained minimal and only 1,277 euros in 2024.
This retail weight is reflected in the total gun trading figures in Spain for 2024, whereby the total exports reached € 858.4 million, while imports were € 290.76 million.
In the meantime, Spanish Economic Minister Carlos Cuerpo has asked the European Commission to either finance domestic defense investments by loans and exclude this investment from public deficit calculations if they are financed by the state.
The expansion of weapon exports in Spain occurs during the President of NATO and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, criticized the country for not entering into its domestic military spending obligations.
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