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The UK's Relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain

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The UK's Relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee The UK's relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain Fifth Report of Session 2013–14 Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Additional written evidence is contained in Volume II, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/facom Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 12 November 2013 HC 88 [Incorporating HC 917-i, -ii, -iii, -iv Session 2012-13 Published on 22 November 2013 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £23.00 The Foreign Affairs Committee The Foreign Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its associated agencies. Current membership Rt Hon Richard Ottaway (Conservative, Croydon South) (Chair) Mr John Baron (Conservative, Basildon and Billericay) Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell (Liberal Democrat, North East Fife) Rt Hon Ann Clwyd (Labour, Cynon Valley) Mike Gapes (Labour/Co-op, Ilford South) Mark Hendrick (Labour/Co-op, Preston) Sandra Osborne (Labour, Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) Andrew Rosindell (Conservative, Romford) Mr Frank Roy (Labour, Motherwell and Wishaw) Rt Hon Sir John Stanley (Conservative, Tonbridge and Malling) Rory Stewart (Conservative, Penrith and The Border) The following Members were also members of the Committee during the parliament: Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth (Labour, Coventry North East) Emma Reynolds (Labour, Wolverhampton North East) Mr Dave Watts (Labour, St Helens North) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including news items) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/facom. A list of Reports of the Committee in the present Parliament is at the front of this volume. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Kenneth Fox (Clerk), Peter McGrath (Second Clerk), Zoe Oliver-Watts (Senior Committee Specialist), Dr Brigid Fowler (Committee Specialist), Louise Glen (Senior Committee Assistant), Vanessa Hallinan (Committee Assistant), and Alex Paterson (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Foreign Affairs Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6105; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. The UK’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 Conclusions and recommendations 7 1 Introduction 15 Our inquiry 15 2 Broader context: UK ties with the Gulf 17 Historic ties with the Gulf States 18 Ongoing interests 19 UK Government policy: renewing ties 20 The UK’s support for reform and human rights in the Gulf 22 A change of policy toward Gulf States? 23 3 Bilateral relations with Saudi Arabia 28 Historical ties 28 UK-Saudi diplomatic relationship today 29 Shared interests 29 Pursuing a ‘strategic partnership’ with Saudi Arabia 29 People to people contacts and public opinion 31 Engaging with the Saudi public 32 Economic and commercial relations 35 Saudi economy 35 UK-Saudi trade and commercial relations 36 Barriers to trade: visas 39 Defence sales to Saudi Arabia 40 Defence and security cooperation 46 Counter-Terrorism 48 Saudi Arabia as a foreign policy partner 52 Diplomatic capacity 52 Regional influence: a force for moderation? 54 Shared interests 55 Reform and human rights in Saudi Arabia: current situation 61 Political reform 61 Human rights 62 Is Saudi Arabia reforming? 63 How effectively is the UK supporting reform and human rights in Saudi Arabia? 65 Strategy of engagement 65 4 Bilateral relations with Bahrain 70 Why is Bahrain important? 70 A divided society 70 Close historical ties 71 Brief summary of recent political history 72 2 The UK’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain National dialogue 74 UK response to events in Bahrain: testing times for UK-Bahrain relations? 74 Criticism of the relationship 76 People to people contact and public opinion 78 Engaging with the public 79 Trade and commercial relations 80 Bahrain’s economy 80 UK-Bahrain trade 81 Defence sales and export licences 82 Cyber technology exports 83 Defence and security relationship 84 UK-Bahrain military cooperation 85 Co-operation withdrawn? 85 The UK’s support for human rights and reform in Bahrain 88 Ongoing violations 89 UK engagement on human rights and reform since 2011 90 Too close to Bahrain? 91 UK support for action by NGOs and International Organisations 93 Bahrain’s international context 94 5 FCO resources in the Gulf 97 Staff resources 97 Arabic language skills 97 6 Future of UK-Gulf relations 100 Annexes 101 Annex A: Committee meetings in Riyadh and Manama 101 Annex B: Informal meetings in the UK relevant to this inquiry 102 Appendix 1: List of MOUs and treaties between the UK and Saudi Arabia 104 Formal Minutes 108 Witnesses 112 List of printed written evidence 113 List of additional written evidence 113 The UK’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain 3 Summary The Gulf region remains critical to the UK’s interests. The Government is correct to place emphasis on the UK’s long-standing relationships with partners in the Gulf and to seek to further extend these ties. The ‘Gulf Initiative’ launched by the Government in 2010 is largely a re-branding exercise but as a sign of the UK’s commitment to its relationships in the region it appears to have been appreciated. The Arab Spring in 2011 brought about a renewed focus on the UK’s approach to supporting human rights and democratic reform. The Gulf States were particularly challenging for FCO policy in this regard: although their domestic situations vary, some Gulf States are among the least democratic in the world, and they generally have poor human rights records. However, most are also wealthy and powerful, and vitally important to many of the UK’s interests in the region. The Government had to reassure its old allies in the Gulf of its reliability while simultaneously pressing them more urgently for change and reform. In this context, the Government’s emphasis on gradual reform based on participation and consent is a realistic approach, though the FCO should continue to monitor the effectiveness of its policy closely. The Government is correct to seek to strengthen its diplomatic relationship with Saudi Arabia, which is important to the UK’s defence, security and commercial interests. Despite some efforts by the UK to establish a ‘strategic partnership’, official arrangements for a UK- Saudi annual dialogue have lapsed since 2011, for reasons largely outside the Government’s control. There is value in such structured relations and the UK should continue to pursue a formal dialogue arrangement with Saudi Arabia. There is limited but worrying evidence of a poor public perception of the UK in Saudi Arabia, including among its young population, as well as a negative perception of Saudi Arabia among the UK population. This is a matter of concern, particularly at a time when public opinion and public diplomacy is rising in importance. The Government should make public engagement a priority for its Embassy in Riyadh. Democratic governments such as the UK face a challenge in trying to reconcile their liberal constituencies at home with the need to maintain relationships with undemocratic and conservative regimes that are important to their interests on a regional and global level. We understand that to encourage a government such as that of Saudi Arabia towards reform, a combination of private and public pressure is required. By their very nature, private conversations are difficult to explain publicly. However, we are particularly concerned that some witnesses not only disagreed with UK policy but appeared to disbelieve the Government’s account of its private conversations with Saudi Arabia on reform. The Government appears to have a credibility problem and must do more to explain its policies and consider where it can point to specific progress as a result of its human rights work. Saudi Arabia is a large and growing market for the UK, and the Saudi government’s large- scale spending programmes offer huge opportunities for British businesses. Saudi Arabia is also an important if controversial buyer for the UK defence industry. We have seen no conclusive proof that Saudi Arabia has misused the equipment sold by the UK, and the UK 4 The UK’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain provides training alongside its sales programmes which enhances the UK-Saudi defence relationship and benefits Saudi forces’ training. Ending defence sales would have significant costs for the UK-Saudi relationship and there is little evidence to suggest that it would have any positive effect, particularly given the presence of other sellers in the market. Saudi Arabia continues to be a vital but complicated counter-terrorism partner for the UK and wider international community. Counter-terrorism co-operation has proven to be of great and practical benefit to both sides and has been instrumental in protecting British lives and interests. However, Saudi Arabia is part of the problem as well as part of the solution. We recommend that the Government make it a priority to engage with its counter-terrorism partners in Saudi Arabia to improve the monitoring of the funding flowing from Saudi Arabia to organisations with an extremist message so that it can be more effectively disrupted. The Government should also encourage Saudi Arabia to ensure that its legitimate promotion of religious values does not inadvertently contribute to the furtherance of extremism, especially with regard to states in North Africa that have been particularly vulnerable to the influence of extremist groups, as well as in states in other regions such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
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