'Britain has no formal embargo on arms sales to Pak.'

By Thomas Abraham

LONDON, JULY 26. Britain does not have either a formal or an informal embargo on arms sales to Pakistan, the British Foreign Office has made clear in testimony to parliament. The Foreign Office Minister, Mr. Peter Hain, in evidence before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this year, said ``there is no formal arms embargo, and there is no de facto informal one either.'' Instead, he said, every arms export application was given a ``careful consideration'' to see the impact the equipment exported could have on the situation in Kashmir, and whether it could be used for external aggression.

Britain has, at one level, condemned the coup in Pakistan and called for an early restoration of democracy. But at the same time it has clearly followed a pragmatic approach to arms sales to the country. Britain is the world's second largest arms exporter, and it is the government's policy to support the arms industry and help it win contracts abroad.

In the case of Pakistan, there are restrictions on the kind of weapons that Britain would supply. But these are more to do with Islamabad's nuclear status and the situation in Kashmir, than with the fact that it is run by a military government.

There appears to be little difference in the arms sales policy towards Pakistan and India at present.

The British policy towards both the countries were set out immediately after the nuclear tests in 1998, when the Foreign Secretary stated that ``as the recent actions of both the countries have demonstrated a lack of commitment on the principles of non proliferation and have adversely affected regional stability, we will consider all export licence applications concerning either country with particular vigilance.''

Ironically, while it maintains a tight regime on exports, Britain is trying to sell the Hawk trainer aircraft to India.

Immediately after the coup, Britain sat on close to 100 export licences for arms export until it got a clear picture of where the regime is going. It is now apparently satisfied that it can do business with the Musharraf regime, and has since granted 20 licences for bomb disposal equipment and naval spares. It has rejected 26 licence applications, and has not taken a decision on around 70 other applications.

A major British worry appears to be that in the absence of an EU or any other international embargo on arms sales to Pakistan, arms manufacturers from other countries would take advantage of any British ban. An association of British defence manufacturers, the Defence Manufacturers Association, has raised fears that it would be undercut by other European manufacturers if Britain went further than the rest of the EU in imposing restrictions.

In response to questions at a Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Select committee hearing, Mr. Hain admitted that worries about being undercut by manufacturers from other countries did influence decisions on granting licences. ``Those considerations might be one of them,'' he said, but added that the impact of arms sales ``on the security situation and the tension in the country'' was more important.

Foreign Office figures show that in 1997, British exported œ6.5 million of defence equipment to Pakistan, a figure which had come down to œ750,000 in 1998 after the nuclear tests.

Parliamentarians have expressed unease at the way the government has continued to licence defence sales to sensitive countries, and have suggested that the parliamentary committee should have the right to scrutinise export licence applications before they are granted by the government.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : External forces hinder peace effort in Sierra
           Leone
Next     : Briton indicted on arms smuggling charges