Tag: arms fair

Arms trade news


Grim reading in Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s latest newsletter

May 2025

The CAAT Newsletter (Spring 2025, Issue 272) has details of what’s happening in the world of arms sales a world in which the UK is a big player. Our previous post discussed the continuing sale of arms to Israel which is subject to an Appeal Court hearing starting on 13th. Also we mentioned the role of the RAF in carrying out hundreds of flights over Gaza and quite what is being done with the information gleaned is not revealed.

Arms sales are important for several reasons. Weapons have an enormous capacity to do great harm in the wrong hands. Governments need to exert great control over licensing to ensure that arms do not fall into such hands. British governments are frequently to be heard claiming it exercises ‘robust’ controls. It is doubtful that this is the case and CAAT have often noted the considerable use of open licences which means little effective control exists.

The current Labour government has a policy of growth which seems to dominate thinking. As the court case will reveal, and papers have already revealed, this seems to trump considerations of human rights. CAAT News has the following examples:

  • The Defence Secretary has held meetings with counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Turkey to discuss opportunities for expanding military cooperation which is likely to involve arms sales. Both countries have woeful human rights records. Saudi has a full array of violations including public executions, use of torture, restrictions on women’s rights and repression of any opposition or free speech. Turkey has carried out baseless prosecutions against journalists, human rights defenders and opposition leaders, thousands of whom are in gaol.
  • Eurofighter sales – which the UK co-produces – are planned for Qatar and Turkey. The latter is involved in bombing Kurdish groups in its own country and Iraq. Qatar is another repressive Gulf state and is highly corrupt.
  • We have noted before the question of the Revolving Door where politicians, ministers, senior civil servants and military personnel leave their posts and head off for lucrative appointments/directorships/consultancies with arms firms. It is an open invitation for corruption and the ACOBA system seems powerless to stop it. The Aerospace, Defence and Security Group, (ADS) the trade body for the defence industry representing all of the major arms makers, holds an annual dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel in which, in the words of CAAT ‘The dinner’s purpose is to introduce them to one another and allow them to schmooze and entertain their powerful friends from Parliament and the Civil Service‘ … These kinds of dinners are where relationships are formed and built and where the next round of arms deals are made, over fine food and wines.’
  • And it doesn’t end there. The Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) resumes in September at the ExCel Centre in London. This may be the largest such exhibition in the world. It is popular because the UK government invites representatives from a wide range of countries including those with appalling human rights records, some even on its own watch list. The thousands of attendees will be met by ‘a cast of compliant senior civil servants and politicians on hand to make sure things run smoothly’ (CAAT).
  • … or even there because the Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre is to host Security and Policing run by the Home Office. Again, a range of countries with dreadful human rights are cordially invited to view the latest in surveillance, tear gas and ammunition. Journalists are banned. Britain seems happy to be host to regimes who use this equipment to repress and intimidate oppositions, journalists or human rights people.
Growth or rights?

The government seems keen to actively support these activities and to do all it can to promote arms and surveillance equipment to repressive regimes. It does this while piously claiming that:

This Government is fully committed to the protection of human rights both at home and abroad. We are committed to the international human rights framework and the important role that multilateral organisations like the Council of Europe play in upholding it. (Ministry of Justice, November 2024, ref: CP 1192)

It is hard to square the multi-level activities to promote arms sales and in the process currying favour with some of the world’s worst regimes, with their stated desire to be upholders of human rights and the wellbeing of those at the end of it all. While politicians, civil servants, military brass and ministers ‘schmooze’ with the arms manufacturers in expensive London hotels, it may be hard for them to empathise with those who have been bombed, starved, driven from their homes or incarcerated, tortured or executed for no reason. All facilitated by the weapons and equipment they so admire whilst quaffing the Bollinger. Is it growth above all else?

Sources include: CAAT, The Canary, Amnesty

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Arms Trade news


Latest CAAT News on arms trade issues

February 2024

UPDATE: 22 February 2024. UK government may suspend arms licenses to Israel if it goes ahead with the attack on Rafah.

We have mentioned the arms trade on many occasions before believing that the UK’s continued role in supplying weapons to a wide range of regimes with little concern for the consequences is shameful and immoral. As a key member of the UN, to be one of the world’s biggest seller of arms is not something to be proud of. Weapons kill, and are used to oppress minorities or to exert power over them. The biggest sufferers – as we are seeing in Gaza right now – are usually women and children.

Gaza

The lead article in the Campaign Against the Arms Trade newsletter (No 268, Spring 2024) is the situation in Gaza where an estimated 29,000 have now died at the time of writing. Israel has damaged or destroyed some 70% of Gaza’s residential buildings and has ‘systematically’ degraded healthcare facilities and food production systems. Around 85% of the population has been displaced. Meanwhile they say “senior Israeli politicians and military figures have openly talked of expelling the population of Gaza to Egypt, and have used blatantly genocidal language”. (p3)

The US is the major suppliers of weapons to Israel and the UK is a minor supplier by comparison although we do manufacture 15% of F-35 aircraft used by the Israelis.

Weapons

The UK government wants to champion arms companies it reports as “positive ambassadors for the UK, in the face of investment threats“. The focus was announced by Grant Shapps MP as part of a strategy to increase arms exports. They also appear to be encouraging Saudi Arabia to join a defence partnership to build the next generation of fighter jets. The record of Saudi in terms of human rights hardly needs rehearsing with executions, repression, use of torture and the outcry following the murder of Khashoggi. Japan, another possible partner, is said to be opposed to this. It seems the commercial priorities are supreme over any considerations of human rights. (p5)

Annual Report

CAAT has published its second annual report for 2022. It shows a big surge in export orders to £8.5bn. It shows that the single largest customer is Qatar which has a particularly poor human rights record. The report discusses some of the key countries of concern to whom we sell weapons and these include, UAE, Turkey, Saudi and Israel. The report is hard to summarise and does need to be read to gain an understanding of how the trade works and the UK’s role in it.

Telford Arms Fair

This fair used to be in Malvern and campaigners have tried to get it stopped now that it has moved to Telford. The fair is called the Specialist Defence and Security Convention UK. The title gives the impression of a benign intent with the words ‘security’ and ‘defence’. However, the weapons on display and the countries who purchase them are often used to maintain colonial power or to oppress in some way. They also kill. It has to be questioned whether such an exhibition is appropriate for the UK to be promoting and playing such an active part in. (p12). An article in the Shropshire Star newspaper had the following quote “Residents, faith groups, veterans, trade unions, environmental and peace organisations made very clear the arms fair is no more welcome in Telford than in Malvern, and we’ll be continuing to engage with the council and the Telford International Centre to ensure we don’t see a weapons fair here again.” There does not appear to be any policy statement on the details available about any moral or human rights stance by themselves or the exhibitors.

Saudi and MBS

The red carpet was almost certainly to be rolled out for Mohammed bin Salman’s planned visit to the UK. At his last visit he had lunch with the Queen and dinner with Prince William and Kate Middleton. The main purpose of course was the sale of weapons and in particular, Typhoon aircraft. A deal was in place CAAT reports but the murder of Khashoggi, CAAT’s own legal case and the war in Yemen delayed signing.

A number of human rights organisations were planning an appropriate welcome and included Amnesty, Reprieve, CAAT, and a Saudi human rights organisation Alqst. A problem for the UK is that the Eurofighter is a joint programme and some of the partners – Italy, Germany and Spain – need to approve any exports. Germany opposed the deal especially after the Khashoggi murder. There has been a lot of lobbying and the German position may have softened. It is possible the visit will happen therefore.

The overall picture is that the UK sees the sale of weapons to be a key enterprise and Grant Shapps’ statement about arms companies being ‘ambassadors’ sums up the position nicely. It would be hard to argue that the government has any kind of ethical position. Countries with atrocious human rights are courted for sales often using members of the Royal Family as ‘ambassadors’ as well.

No human rights policy

It is also interesting to note that there does not seem to be anywhere on the Ministry of Defence’s website, any reference at all to human rights concerns. The nearest policy statement appears to be the following:

‘We will engage proactively and persistently around the globe, working with our allies, to support our foreign policy goals, promote our interests and keep our competitors at bay, including in the grey zone.

‘Defence will contribute to our prosperity through creating a secure environment for business, supporting British business and jobs, and through supporting technology innovation in the economy more widely, investing in Research and Development (R&D) and new technologies to counter the threat‘.

The UK’s prosperity seems to be the one and only concern. An ethical foreign policy seems a very long time ago.

Sources: CAAT news, Shropshire Star, The Times, MoD

The Salisbury group was established 50 years ago this year

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Hong Kong and Chemring


Hong Kong withdraws from the DSEI arms exhibition.  Tear gas supplied by Chemring used by the police

The protests in Hong Kong have been going on since 9th June 2019 and we have seen regular incidents of violent police actions to quell the demonstrations.  There have also been what appear to be organised attacks by thugs wielding bars and clubs with no sign of any arrests or indeed of police at all.

A statement by Amnesty following the July events said:

The violent scenes in Yuen Long tonight were in part because Hong Kong police chose to inflame a tense situation rather than deescalate it.  For police to declare today’s protest unlawful was simply wrong under international law.

While police must be able to defend themselves, there were repeated instances today where police officers were the aggressors; beating retreating protesters, attacking civilians in the train station and targeting journalists.  Alarmingly, such a heavy-handed response now appears the modus operandi for Hong Kong police and we urge them to quickly change course.   Man-kei Tam, Director of Amnesty International Hong Kong

The police have been using tear gas supplied by the UK company Chemring.  The firm has a factory outside Salisbury (pictured) although the cannisters are made by their plant in Derby.  It is still under investigation for money laundering, bribery and corruption by the Serious Fraud Office.

IMG_6942
Chemring factory near Salisbury.  The CS gas cannisters are not made here but in their plant in Derby.  Photo: Salisbury Amnesty

Following similar incidents in 2014 – the umbrella movement – it was thought that a licence to sell tear gas was withheld or at least under review but it seems as though the company was free to sell it to the Hong Kong police.  This is part of a wider government policy of allowing UK companies to sell weapons to all kinds of regimes whilst allegedly claiming to enforce a strict control policy.  Chemring were granted an open licence in 2015.  The former foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, recently withdrew the licence following the weeks of violence which makes inviting HKPF to the DSEI arms fair odd.  The firm’s human rights policy (2019) says:

[We will] seek to uphold all internationally recognised human rights wherever our operations are based.  para 3.14, 2019

Hong Kong police withdrew from the DSEI arms fare to be held this week having been invited by the Dept. for International Trade the minister for which is Liz Truss.  A statement by the department said:

an invitation does not imply that any future export licences will be granted to Hong Kong

Campaign Against the Arms Trade, CAAT said:

The UK government approved the export of an unlimited quantity of crowd control equipment to Hong Kong.  Police in Hong Kong have used tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannon and batons to violently disperse protests opposing the new Extradition Bill.  At least six people have been taken to hospital after inhaling tear gas.

There have been many protests about this fair which invites a number of countries many of which commit a range of human rights infringements, use torture and in the case of Saudi Arabia are bombing civilian targets in Yemen.

The Omega Research Foundation established in 1990, provides rigorous, objective, evidence-based research on the manufacture, trade, and use of, military, security and police (MSP) equipment.  Such technologies range from small arms and light weapons to large weapon systems; from policing technologies and prison equipment to equipment used for torture, amongst others.  A recent tweet from them shows a photograph of a CS gas cannisters which appears to be made by Chemring.

The substance of the Hong Kong protests is that they do not want individuals to be extradited to China whose legal system is corrupt.  Britain has a delicate role to play in protecting the agreement with China for ‘one country – two systems’.  We wish to see essential freedoms in the ex colony to be upheld.  Our integrity is a key component in that.  As in so many other countries around the world, our willingness to sell arms and MSP equipment risks compromising that integrity.

UPDATE 5 June 2020  see also the firm’s alleged activity in selling arms to the Egyptian regime which commits many human rights abuses.  

If you would like to join the local group you would be most welcome.  The best thing is to keep an eye on this site or on Facebook and Twitter, and make yourself known at an event.

 

 

 

 

Sources:  Financial Times; CAAT; Morning Star; Guardian; Fieldfisher; Omega Research Foundation; Chemring website

 

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