On 24 February, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire stated that Germany should ease its hard arms export rules for countries outside the EU to revitalize the defence industry. Both France and Germany have joint arms manufacturing projects which are being stalled by Germany’s refusal to authorise future arms export licences to Saudi Arabia, a major buyer. Berlin cut arms export with Saudi Arabia in November over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. France’s Economy Minister said it was “useless to produce weapons through improved cooperation between France and Germany” if they “were unable to export them”. “If you want to be competitive and efficient, we need to be able to export to countries outside Europe” Le Maire stressed. Earlier this month British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt also sent a letter to his counterpart in Berlin urging Germany to relax its ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Hunt argued the U.K. sales of weapons were being affected too because the ban means that Britain can’t ship war planes because they contain German-made components. After British and German foreign Ministers met, German sources reportedly indicated it could reconsider its export ban but that it would also depend on developments in the Yemen conflict.