Prince Charles' arms trade role 'only small part of bigger picture'
Prince Charles is only a small part of UK government's arms export promotion
The revelation was featured in The Times this morning as part of a serialisation of a forthcoming biography of the Prince. This comes only four days ahead of what will be the Charles' 12th visit to the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia. The tour, which comes at the request of the UK government, will also include visits to Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Andrew Smith from Campaign Against Arms Trade said: “By Prince Charles' own admission he has used his position to promote UK arms sales to tyrants and dictators. However, Charles is only a small part of a much bigger picture of taxpayer funded arms export promotion.”
When the Prince visited in 2014 it coincided with an announcement that theSaudi Arabian government and arms company BAE Systems had agreed a price increases for the sale of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia.
The Royal Family insisted that the matter was not discussed, but the deal cameonly 24 hours before the publication of BAE's otherwise disappointing 2014results, and followed two visits to the country by David Cameron, in which he had failed to secure a deal. The BAE share price was expected to fall if sales were not confirmed.
Andrew continued: “The UK may talk about promoting democracy, but unfortunately, when it comes to business, human rights will often play second fiddle to the short term profits of the arms companies.”
UK arms exports are promoted through UK Trade & Investment's Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO), which employs 128 civil service staff in London for the sole purpose of helping arms companies to sell weapons.
Around 270 UK Ministry of Defence civil servants and military personnel work in the UK and Saudi Arabia to support the contracts through the Ministry of Defence Saudi Armed Forces Programme (MODSAP) and the Saudi Arabia National Guard Communications Project (SANGCOM).
In its first four years the Coalition government has licensed £3.8 billion worth of arms to the Saudi regime. This has included licences for combat aircrafts, components for bombs, weapon sights and tear gas.
