THE AUSTRALIAN: PRINCE Andrew, the Duke of York was criticised for "opening doors for arms dealers" yesterday, while senior business and political figures gave their backing to his role as a government trade envoy.
Prince Andrew arrived back from his visit to Indonesia, which is seeking the lifting of a British arms export ban so that it can buy military jets.
His trip took place six weeks after David Cameron was criticised for promoting the sale of British weapons in Egypt as the country went through a bloody revolution.
It was his first trip as trade envoy since the revelation of his links to an American sex offender and support for deals with countries with questionable human rights records.
During the three-day trip he met President Yudhoyono and Mari Pangestu, the Indonesian Trade Minister, both of whom he had also met in Switzerland in January.
The Times revealed last month that Indonesia has made an informal approach to acquire as many as 24 Eurofighter Typhoon jets in a deal worth up to pounds 5billion ($7.7 billion AUD). Separately, BAE Systems has offered to upgrade the country's Hawk aircraft.
Gerald Howarth, the Defence Minister, attended a defence summit in Jakarta last month where he said that he expected to discuss sales of the Typhoon.
Sales of military equipment to Indonesia were banned in 1999 after reports that the Hawks were used to attack civilians in East Timor and West Papau.
Kaye Stearman, a spokeswoman for Campaign Against Arms Trade, said that Indonesia bought half of its military equipment from Britain in the five years leading up to the export ban.
"It seems that Prince Andrew's role is to open doors to arms deals rather than to do the actual negotiation," Ms Stearman said. "People in some of these countries are still impressed by the British royalty, but it is highly damaging for the Royal Family to be associated with such deals." » | David Brown | The Times | Monday, April 11, 2011
