The Foreign Secretary has voiced his concern at the suspected murder of a Saudi journalist but his power to act may be hamstrung by the UK’s trade relationship with the Gulf state.
Jeremy Hunt and the other G7 nations said on Wednesday they were “very troubled” by the fate of the missing Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2017, Saudi accounted for 1% of total UK exports, a total of £6.2 billion goods and services were exported to its shores.
In the same year, Saudi Arabia supplied 0.4% of UK imports, worth a total of £2.8 billion.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics showed that last year the UK exported machinery and transport equipment to Saudi Arabia worth £2.3 billion.
Machinery and transport was by far the most valuable type of UK export to Saudi Arabia in 2017, well ahead of goods like chemicals at £515 million, materials at £268 million and food and livestock at £197 million.
By contrast, the UK imported fuel from Saudi Arabia worth £1.3 billion in 2017, making Saudi the seventh biggest supplier of fuel from outside the EU, just behind Algeria at £1.4 billion.
A parliamentary research briefing dated May 2018 revealed that, in 2016, 49% of UK arms and defence equipment exports went to the Middle East.
The report said that there had been a clear upward trend in the volume of arms transfers to Saudi Arabia from 2008 onward from nations all over the world, most notably the United States.
It said: “The estimated volume of transfers to Saudi Arabia in 2017 was the largest in the last 20 years.”
Despite its poor track record on human rights and accusations of war crimes for its involvement in the ongoing civil war in Yemen, the UK has taken steps to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia and its ruling family.
In March this year Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was treated to a three-day visit including lunch with the Queen and dinner with the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge.
Shortly afterwards, the Department for International Development announced it was launching a new partnership with Saudi Fund for Development, a government aid agency, to fund development projects in East Africa.
“This in turn will help to boost global prosperity which is in all our interests.”
The Foreign Secretary previously called for a “complete and detailed response” and a from Saudi Arabia and a “credible investigation” into the whereabouts of Mr Khashoggi.
Last week, the Sabah newspaper, which is close to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, revealed the identities of what it called a “mysterious” 15-member “assassination squad” who were allegedly involved in the disappearance.
Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind called for Britain and its allies to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia for Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance.
