UK ARMS SALES TO REPRESSIVE REGIMES

That this House notes the Government has officially invited Governments with records of serious and systematic human rights abuses, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Turkey, to the Defence and Security Equipment International exhibition this week in London; is concerned that such Governments are 2017-18 priority markets for the Government's arms export agency, the Department for International Trade's Defence and Security Organisation; is particularly dismayed with the continued licensing of arms exports to Saudi Arabia, given that air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen are continuing to result in civilian deaths in violation of international humanitarian law; believes that by licensing arms exports to repressive regimes, or where they could be used to exacerbate internal conflicts or in contravention of international humanitarian law, the Government gives international credibility to the recipients, and could be violating its international commitments; and calls on the Government to end arms export promotion to such Governments and adopt a presumption of denial when considering licence applications for exports to them.