UK renews arms sales to Indonesia, after 13 years

Prime Minister David Cameron and his entourage including representatives from arms companies such as BAE Systems arrived in Jakarta to discuss plans for Britain to renew arms sales to the Southeast Asian country for the first time after a 13-year hiatus, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Britain was once Indonesia’s biggest military supplier, during and after the Suharto dictatorship ended in 1998.
However, the country stopped selling it fighter jets 13 years ago, as the country was accused of bombing its own citizens using British-made planes in East Timor in 1999, and again in Aceh in 2003.

But the Prime Minister said that it was right to make British military equipment available to Indonesia now it was a “responsible” country.

Speaking on the runway as he was greeted by a military parade, Cameron said he was visiting Indonesia because it "will be a top 10 economy and these are huge opportunities for British business".

In August last year, a study revealed that Britain's arms exports have seen a 30 percent increase since the beginning of unrest in the Middle East and North of Africa.

The study said that the UK has exported arms worth £30.5 million to countries including Libya, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia between February and June which shows a 30 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

The exported weapons included arms used for internal repression, such as small arms ammunition, rifles and sub-machine guns, according to the study.