Germany Is Arming the Middle East, Talks Trade War, and Still Has No Government
Over the weekend, Turkey invaded part of Syria. But what’s causing a stir is that it did so using German Leopard 2 tanks.
So Germany was enabling that intervention. More than that, Germany is on the brink of greatly expanding its military cooperation with Turkey, especially on tanks.
Turkey wants Germany to upgrade all its Leopard 2 tanks with the latest armor. German-Foreign-Policy.com wrote that this upgrade “is considered momentous, not only because it significantly increases the future scope of the Turkish Army in operations such as the current one in Syria. The modernization of the Leopard 2A4 is also considered by observers to be a preparation for a much more important project: Rheinmetall’s involvement in the construction of a tank factory in Turkey” (Trumpet translation).
This could be big business. Turkey is talking about buying 1,000 of these tanks. The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) is interested in up to another 1,000. So this could become a major initiative in arming the Middle East with German weapons via Turkey.
Related to that, another piece of news caused a stir this week: Germany’s last government exported more weapons than any previous postwar government. That’s according to preliminary data released by Germany’s Economy Ministry.
The big change was Germany exported dramatically more to countries outside of the European Union and nato. Many of these were in the Middle East. Top destinations include Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.
Why is all this significant? The Bible actually talks about Germany creating an alliance of Middle Eastern nations. Now we see it doing exactly that—through arms sales. The Bible identifies some of these allies in Psalm 83 and elsewhere, and the list includes Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Now we see Germany creating exactly this alliance using its arms trades.
You can read more about that in our free booklet The King of the South. The chapter titled “A Mystery Alliance”will help you learn much more about this prophecy.
Another piece of news this week came from Switzerland. The Davos summit is going on right now, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a speech where once again she offered veiled criticism of United States President Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, the U.S. put tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines. It’s also talking about putting tariffs on steel, which would really hit Europe. And so it was notable that Ms. Merkel used this submit to speak out against protectionism. “We think that shutting ourselves off and isolating ourselves will not lead us into a good future, she said. “Protectionism is not the proper answer.”
She also restated that she believes Europe needs to stand alone, against America. “We need to take more responsibility; we need to take our destiny into our own hands,” she said.
Again, this is prophetically significant. The Bible talks about a trade war against the U.S., led by Europe and China. You can see that brewing at these international summits, with all these powers turning against the U.S. on trade. You can read more about that in our April 2017 Trumpet issue, in Brad Macdonald’s article “Trade Wars Have Begun.”
Finally, a quick update on Germany’s coalition negotiations.
Germany’s Social Democrats agreed to continue negotiations towards forming a government at a conference over the weekend—but only barely. Fifty-six percent were in favor of continuing the negotiations, and 44 percent for pulling out. It was clear that most were unhappy with the way the negotiations are going, and even many that voted for continuing want to see a very different deal at the end than the one currently on offer. Meanwhile, according to Bild, Merkel’s party is getting ready a plan B—a 6-month minority government with another election in the autumn. Both the New York Times and Reuters have run articles talking about the end of Merkel.
So plenty of instability continuing in Germany’s coalition negotiation. We’ve said for years to watch for exactly this kind of instability because the Bible says it will lead to the arrival of a strong leader. You can learn more about that in our free booklet A Strong German Leader Is Imminent.