DSEi delegations
Military delegations are invited to DSEi by the UK Government's arms export unit, UKTI DSO (UK Trade & Investment's Defence & Security Organisation).
Invitations for DSEi 2011
The official delegation invitation list for DSEi 2011 has finally been provided, long after an earlier incomplete and misleading release and failure to respond to attempts at clarification.
63 countries have been invited
14 invitees are "authoritarian regimes"
(as identified by the Economist Intelligence Unit)
These are Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco,
Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Vietnam
5 invitees have been
identified by the UK Foreign Office as
countries with "the most serious wide-ranging human rights concerns".
These are Colombia, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
8 invitees were in a "major armed conflict" in 2010 (as
identified by SIPRI).
These are Colombia, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Turkey and the USA.
Despite the ongoing Arab Spring and the lessons that should have been learnt by the UK Government, Libya is the only country in the Middle East and North Africa region that was invited to DSEi 2009 and has not been invited this time.
Eight countries have been invited that were not invited to DSEi 2009, including Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon and Nigeria.
Misleading parliament and the public
In June the Government's answer to a parliamentary question stated that 37 countries "have been invited to send official government defence and security delegations to Defence and Security Equipment International 2011". No further details were provided until today's (12 September) list of 63 countries.
The countries on the new list that are missing from the June answer are striking:
Algeria, Angola, Bahamas, Bahrain, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt,
Georgia, Iraq, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Philippines, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, UAE and Vietnam.
A run down of the DSEi 2011 invitations saga
In August CAAT received a copy of DSEi's "Defence Attaché & VIP briefing document". This stated that "The importance of DSEi to nations around the world is evidenced by the number of countries that have been invited by the British Government to attend this year's event; 125 individual invitations have been extended to 61 countries so far."
Missing information
Sixty-one was a very different number to that provided in a 7 June 2011 answer to a parliamentary question. This stated that 37 countries "have been invited to send official government defence and security delegations to Defence and Security Equipment International 2011".
The list given to parliament did not include any Middle East or North Africa countries, many of which are key UK arms markets and continue to be the subject of enthusiastic UK Government arms promotion (see CAAT media release, 31 August 2011).
In order to try and shed some light on the restricted list, CAAT submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Foreign Office. It is "standard practice" for the UKTI to seek views from the Foreign Office "on whether it is appropriate for country invitations to be issued to attend UKTI exhibitions" (Foreign Office Minister, 22 February 2010). This "seeking-views" list was requested on 16 June 2011. Despite it being far beyond the time-limit for a response, there has been no response to date.
Looking like business as usual
However, an indication that it would be 'business as usual' at DSEi came on 21 July when CAAT obtained a letter written on 26 April 2011 from DSEi's organisers. This stated that "over 60 nations" will again be invited to DSEi.
This was reinforced on 16 August when UKTI DSO put a document on their website promoting their DSEi 2011 "Meet The Buyer Sessions". The sessions included one with a Saudi Arabia delegation. This delegation was obviously absent from the list given to parliament.
Still waiting
Following receipt of DSEi's "Defence Attaché & VIP briefing document", CAAT asked Trade Minister Lord Green, who is responsible for UKTI, for the full list of invitees (request made 24 August). His office (bizarrely) put in an FoI request to the Information Rights Unit of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (of which UKTI is a part). The eventual provision of the list did not appear to be related to this request.
For further information and comment on the failure to provide a full delegation invitation list, see CAAT's 9 September 2011 media release.
Clarion's invitees
While the official delegation programme is "organised in conjunction with" the British Government’s UKTI DSO, the "Defence Attaché & VIP briefing document" also states, "we are expecting over 500 senior UK and Overseas military and government representatives to attend DSEi this year as VIP guests of the Organisers." There is no further information available on these.
Previous invitation lists
DSEi 2009 (59 invited delegations. Attendees indicated)
DSEi 2007 (59 invited delegations. Attendees not known)
DSEi 2005 (61 invited delegations. Attendees indicated)
DSEi 2003 (62 invited delegations. Attendees indicated)
There was also a
separate list of invitations sent to London based Embasssies by Spearhead, the then
organisers of DSEi (77 invitations).
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