Minister defends UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia

DEFENCE under-secretary Stuart Andrew has defended the UK’s record on selling arms to Saudi Arabia.

Britain’s lucrative trade relationship with the kingdom has been under scrutiny since a Saudi-led military coalition commenced a bombing campaign in Yemen three years ago. But the sale of arms has come under fresh scrutiny this week in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul three weeks ago.

Speaking in Belfast yesterday, where he announced a £93m missile contract for Thales UK, the MOD minister said: “This has been a week where a lot of questions have been raised, but what I would put to you is that we have among the most stringent and toughest licensing regimes in the world.

“We are very careful about making sure that any of the equipment that we sell meets international obligations.

“We are not afraid of making sure that we have the right licensing processes in place. We have got them, they are very strong and we are proud of that.

“The British Government is constantly looking at each of these situations,” he said.

“We recognise that there are issues in Yemen, that is why we are also making sure that there is a significant amount of money being sent through our international aid budgets to support the people who are caught up in that conflict. There is also a lot of work going on to try and broker a resolution to the issue there.”

Also commenting on the situation, Philip McBride, who heads the Thales operation in Belfast, said the arms trade remained heavily regulated.

“We will only sell to places that the UK Government feel are appropriate to sell to, so I don’t have any qualms about that.”

While Thales UK does not currently sell to the Middle East, Mr McBride identified it as a potential future growth market for the business.