Newly-released figures have revealed that Canada’s sales of military hardware to Saudi Arabia hit a record in 2019, despite a moratorium that was in place on approval of new arms exports to the kingdom due its poor human rights record.
Citing figures released by Canada’s department of Global Affairs, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Tuesday that Canadian shipments of military goods to Saudi Arabia doubled in 2019, compared to the previous year.
Canada, it added, sold almost $2.2 billion worth of military equipment to Saudi Arabia in 2019 – more than double $950 million recorded in 2018 – with light armored vehicles (LAVs) comprising the bulk of the exports.
More than 30 large-caliber artillery systems and 152 heavy machine guns were also sold to Riyadh.
The sales were part of a $10-billion contract Canada signed in 2014 to export LAVs made by the Ontario-based General Dynamics Land Systems to Saudi Arabia, according to the report.
This is while the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had, in 2018, frozen all new export permits and begun a review of the LAVs deal with Riyadh after reports emerged that the Saudi government was behind the brutal killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.
Trudeau said at the time that Canada “was looking for a way out of the Saudi arms deal.”
The Guardian cited Mark Kersten, Deputy Director of the Wayamo Foundation as criticizing the 2019 exports, which had taken place when the moratorium was still in place before being removed earlier this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment