UK not ‘ashamed’ of selling weapons to Middle East: Cameron
February 23rd, 2011 - 3:11 pm ICT by ANI
London, Feb 23 (ANI): British Prime Minister David Cameron has defended his position over the sale of weapons to Middle East, saying that the UK has ‘nothing to be ashamed of’ for selling weapons to Arab leaders.
After being criticised for taking eight arms manufacturers on his ongoing tour of the Middle East despite concerns that British-made equipment had been used by the Gaddafi regime to suppress unrest in Libya, Cameron accused his critics of being ‘at odds with reality’, the Daily Mail reports.
Marking the 20th anniversary of Kuwait’s liberation from Saddam Hussein’s forces, Cameron said that he failed to understand why his attempts to boost British defence sales in such a volatile region are being vehemently opposed.
“A properly regulated trade in defence is nothing we should be ashamed of. The fact that there are British defence companies on this visit - BAe, Thales and others - is perfectly right in this regard,” he said.
According to ADS, the body that represents UK companies, an estimated 7.2 billion pounds worth of British defence exports are sold every year, half of which go to Middle Eastern countries.
Although the UK Foreign Office had cancelled a series of export licences for Libya and Bahrain following the massive protests in those countries, Cameron insisted that there is no harm in doing business with allies like Kuwait.
“The idea that Kuwait should not be able to have its own armed forces able to defend its own country, I find an extraordinary argument to make when we helped liberate the country. We have probably the toughest set of export rules probably anywhere in the world. It is obviously difficult to get it right on every occasion,” Cameron added. (ANI)
- Cameron branded a disgrace for taking arms dealers on Egypt visit - Feb 22, 2011
- Cameron proposal to arm Libyan rebels shot down, UK armed forces in downsizing mode - Mar 02, 2011
- UK's 'dirty secret' of selling arms to Libya months before war revealed - Apr 05, 2011
- Asia's largest defence exhibition kicks off Thursday - Mar 28, 2012
- UK PM defends evacuation of Brits from Libya - Feb 24, 2011
- Britain, Japan agree on joint arms project - Apr 10, 2012
- Unrest in Libya, Middle East proves costly for Russian arms industry - Mar 05, 2011
- Blair urged Gaddafi to stop killing protesters during two telephone conversations this week - Feb 27, 2011
- Libya, Iraq want to buy Russian arms: Minister - Apr 24, 2012
- Thales names new country head for India - Nov 22, 2011
- Britain, US back key NATO role in Libya - Mar 23, 2011
- France world's fourth largest arms exporter - Oct 27, 2011
- Libyan forces using western arms to deal with anti- Gaddafi protestors: EU - Feb 28, 2011
- Cameron had secret talks with Blair over Libya crisis - Mar 03, 2011
- Facelift for two Mirage 2000 jets in French Riviera - Dec 05, 2011
Tags: 20th anniversary, arab leaders, british prime minister, cameron london, daily mail, david cameron, defence companies, defence exports, east cameron, export licences, export rules, gaddafi regime, london feb, mail reports, massive protests, middle eastern countries, minister david, saddam hussein, uk foreign office, volatile region