The Defence & Security Equipment International arms fair (DSEI) opens in London on Tuesday (Protests as Europe’s biggest arms fair returns to London, 9 September). The UK government has a track record of exporting arms to highly repressive regimes. Out of the 67 states that received an official UK government invitation to DSEI, 19 are in armed conflict and 14 are authoritarian regimes as categorised by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index. Even the Foreign Office’s own assessment identifies eight as having a particularly poor human rights record. The government seems exceedingly reluctant to allow ethics to curb its ambition to develop sales opportunities for the UK’s arms industry.
The government has even invited Saudi Arabia to DSEI despite the recent appeal court ruling that has resulted in the suspension of arms sales to that country. The Saudi-led coalition bombing in Yemen has caused immense suffering and, according to UN investigators, the targeting of civilian areas may amount to war crimes.
The appeal court’s decision must prompt a root and branch re-evaluation of the UK’s dangerous promotion of weapons of war. The sponsorship of this industry compromises our ability to develop peaceful, just, ecologically sustainable and equitable societies. As representatives of faith communities committed to these aims, we believe that they should be at the heart of UK foreign policy and of our trading relations.
Paul Parker Recording clerk, Quakers in Britain, Rev Dr Barbara Glasson President, Methodist Conference, Stephen Cottrell Bishop of Chelmsford, Rev Dr Richard Frazer Convener, Church and Society Council, Church of Scotland, Rev David Mayne Moderator, Baptist Union Council, Rev Nigel Uden Moderator, General Assembly of the United Reformed Church
