Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many countries which appeared on the list of the UK Government’s Human Rights Priority Countries in 2017 (a) attended and (b) sent delegations to the 2017 Defence and Security Equipment International.

The Department for International Trade and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office undertake a stringent process of scrutiny and approval before any invitations to foreign governments are issued, for major UK defence exhibitions like DSEI.

Respect for human rights is a mandatory consideration in the process and a country would not be invited where that would contradict the UK’s international obligations. Invitations are reviewed if the situation in any one country changes significantly prior to an exhibition.

Six human rights priority countries were invited and attended Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2017 as official delegations.