An Ethical Foreign Policy

From a speech by Robin Cook, New Labour Foreign Secretary, on May 12 1997:

Our foreign policy must have an ethical dimension and must support the demands of other peoples for the democratic rights on which we insist for ourselves.

From Ten year’s of New Labour’s arms exports: A Review by Mark Curtis:

Reviewing British arms exports for the ten-year period under New Labour, the figures speak for themselves:

• The UK has exported £45 billion worth of arms around the world since 1997.
• Over £110m of military equipment has gone to Israel, throughout a period of offensive operations in the occupied territories and war with Lebanon
• Iraq has again become a large British arms market; over £130m have been exported since the invasion in 2003.
• Half a billion pounds worth of military and ‘other’ equipment has gone to China, which is under an EU arms embargo. Arms have also gone to Hong Kong, controlled by China.
• Indonesia has used UK equipment for repressive purposes on at least a dozen occasions in the Labour years.
• The UK continues to arm many of the world’s poorest countries. South Africa, for example, has received over £400m worth of UK military equipment in the Labour years. Nearly £150m of arms have gone to Nigeria under Labour, including armoured vehicles, rifles, shotguns and small arms ammunition.

Britain’s arms exports industry has been thriving under Labour, not because of the economic benefits to the country – the evidence is overwhelming that arms exports cost the taxpayer more than they generate, given the level of taxpayer subsidies. The major reason is that arms exports are a key part of UK foreign policy, especially in enhancing relationships with repressive regimes and elites, and because a small number of big corporations wiled major influence over government policy; in fact help set it.

In the three years from 2004 to 2006, for example, arms exports were approved to 19 of the 20 countries identified by the Foreign Office in its annual human rights report as ‘countries of concern’.

[Hat Tip: Heathlander]

Technorati Tags: UK, Politics, Robin Cook, Ethical Foreign Policy, New Labour, Arms Exports