As popular uprisings continue in Libya and other Arab countries, arms deals worth billion of dollars were signed at the Middle East's biggest defence and weapons exhibition in Abu Dhabi this week.
But the brutal suppression of protests and the large-scale killings of demonstrators in Libya and Bahrain have provoked an upsurge in soul-searching about the role of the UK, the US and some other Western governments in selling arms to what critics call repressive regimes.
Global Arms Sales Up
The international arms industry is notching up increased sales, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Despite the continuing global economic recession in 2009, total arms sales of the world’s largest arms-producing companies increased by 14.8 billion dollars from 2008 to reach 401 billion dollars, a real increase of 8 per cent, according to new data on international arms production released by SIPRI on 21 February 2011.
Of the SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing companies, 78 are based in the United States and Western Europe.
Saudis, UAE Lead Mid-East Military Spending
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the biggest spenders on military expenditure.
According to the think-tank Forecast International, defence spending across the region is forecast to expand by 14 per cent over the next five years, the South African-based website Defence Web reported on 18 January 2011.
Deals worth billions of dollars were signed at the five-day International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX) which ended in Abu Dhabi on 24 February 2011, said Reuters news agency.
In Egypt, after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, defence spending can be expected to fall from its current level of over 3 billion dollars a year, in the short term at least, as the country reassesses its strategic priorities and rebuilds its economy.
Israel, by contrast, is likely to boost spending on defence as it responds to both the long-standing threat from Iran and the new political order emerging in the Arab world.
Concern over EU Arms Exports to North Africa
Arms export licences from European Union (EU) countries to four troubled north African countries, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, doubled in the year 2008-2009 from 985 million euros (1.36 billion dollars) to 2 billion euros (2.75 billion dollars), the UK's Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said on 8 February 2011. The data was contained in a little noticed report issued on 13 January 2011 by the European Union, CAAT added.
The EU report has fuelled concerns that European weapons were being used by Colonel Gaddafi's forces in Libya to crush protests against his regime.
"While Russia remains the biggest arms supplier to Libya, European defence companies, mainly from France, Italy and Germany have been steadily increasing business ties with Libya," said Germany's Deutsche Welle website in an English-language report on 24 February 2011.
UK Premier Defends Arms Exports
The suppression of popular uprisings across the Middle East and now Libya has raised uncomfortable questions about whether European-made weapons have been used by authoritarian regimes to silence their own citizens, Deutsche Welle commented.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, during a three-day visit to the Gulf states with a group of senior defence manufacturers, robustly defended British arms exports.
Cameron said it was wrong to leave small Gulf countries to fend for themselves, and described opponents of Britain's arms trade as "completely at odds with reality", The Guardian newspaper reported on 22 February 2011.
The United States, for its part, is reviewing billions of dollars in military assistance and weapons sales to countries affected by protests and uprisings in the Middle East.
US defence officials have said that the Obama administration hopes to have proposals ready this summer, Reuters reported on 23 February 2011.
Reuters recalled that Marine Corps General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had cautioned against hasty action to block all arms sales to the region, arguing that the history of US military aid to Egypt had helped avert a more violent army response to protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo.
Peter Feuilherade - I took voluntary early retirement from the BBC in 2010, and I'm now a freelance writer. I had worked there as a reporter and news editor ...
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