‘It is not wrong to sell arms’, says David Cameron as he defends sale of weapons to Middle East.

Date: 23rd February 2011

David Cameron last night defied mounting criticism over his arms mission to the Middle East – declaring that Britain has ‘nothing to be ashamed of’ for selling weapons to Arab leaders. The Prime Minister accused his critics of being ‘at odds with reality’ after he was condemned for taking eight arms manufacturers on his tour of the Gulf. They were invited to join his trip despite concerns that British-made equipment had been used by the Gaddafi regime to suppress unrest in Libya.

But yesterday an angry Mr Cameron said he could not understand why anyone would oppose his attempts to boost British defence sales in such a volatile region. In a speech to the Kuwaiti parliament, he admitted that past British governments had miscalculated in their policy of propping up brutal dictators in the region. But his warm words on peace and democracy have been overshadowed by the disclosure that his delegation contains bosses from such arms firms as BAe Systems, Thales UK, Atkins and Qinetiq.

Marking the 20th anniversary of Kuwait’s liberation from Saddam Hussein’s forces, Mr Cameron said: ‘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.’ The Foreign Office has already revoked a series of export licences for Libya and Bahrain in the wake of the crackdowns on protesters in those countries. But Mr Cameron said it was right to do business with allies such as Kuwait.

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