Airbus President Guillaume Faury considers Berlin’s freezing of sales of Eurofigher fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to be “damaging to Germany’s reputation.”
Berlin’s freeze on sales of Eurofigher fighter jets to Saudi Arabia was “damaging to Germany’s reputation,” Airbus President Guillaume Faury said on Wednesday, saying it affected its “credibility” with its partners.
Germany has frozen arms sales to Riyadh since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the end of 2018, which was attributed by American intelligence in particular to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, thereby blocking a new order for 48 Eurofighter Typhoons signed during a visit to London Saudi prince.
In recent weeks, Riyadh has asked its main rival, France’s Dassault Aviation, to submit an offer to acquire 54 Rafale fighter jets. The Eurofighter is a program led by the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain, bringing together Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.
Question of trust and credibility
For Guillaume Faury, who spoke in a telephone conference on the occasion of the publication of the Airbus results, Berlin’s position was “damaging to Germany’s reputation as an export country”.
“This creates a very difficult situation for the Eurofighter partner countries, which clearly intend to be able to export it,” said the Airbus president, who is preparing to hand over the operational reins of the airliner industry. “Focus on Airbus’ strategic, global and transformational agenda.”
“This naturally raises the question of trust and credibility of Germany as a participating country in international programs,” he said.
When he said that he saw a “positive trend towards calming the situation”, this was “not progressing at the pace that we need, at least not at the pace that we at Airbus consider necessary,” he added and demanded “clear and visible decisions on this issue” to enable Eurofighter exports to Saudi Arabia.