By IRNA
London : An all-party group of MPs Tuesday praised a new treaty signed by former prime minister Tony Blair to ease military sales between the UK and US just before he left office in June.
“It is vital to the interests of both the US and the UK that our Armed Forces have access to the equipment they need to fight effectively alongside their US allies in current and future operations,” the Defence Select Committee said.
“The US and the UK are very close allies, cooperating closely on defence and security. Our soldiers are fighting side by side in Iraq and Afghanistan,” it said in a report on the new Defence Trade Cooperation Treaty.
The deal, intended to make it easier for troops to get equipment, removes the need for licences for some arms sales and sharing of technology research.
The committee said change was essential because the current restrictions on defence exports from the US to the UK were “unduly burdensome and time-consuming” and inhibits the swift supply of urgent equipment to UK Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But it also warned that the treaty, which has yet to be ratified by the UK parliament and US Congress, must not be “blunted” by over-restrictive regulations.
Smaller firms and major foreign-owned defence firms in the UK should not be excluded from the deal. It should also not exclude technologies that would undermine its purpose, the report said.
“As long as the implementing arrangements do not include a long list of exclusions, it should make a step-change in our defence collaboration with the US,” said committee chairman James Arbuthnot.
Arbuthnot said he hoped colleagues in the US Congress will agree that it is in all our interests to remove the barriers to defence cooperation. “We trust that the Treaty will be ratified in both countries without delay,” he said.