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Boris Johnson has defended his attempts to forge closer ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) despite the country’s questionable human rights record.
The prime minister, who is currently in Abu Dhabi on a controversial visit to the Gulf states, reiterated his call for the West to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels.
His goal is to use the visit to persuade Gulf leaders to increase oil production to help reduce prices that soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But Johnson has been criticized for aligning the UK with countries that have poor human rights records.
When asked about working with the regime, the Prime Minister said: “I have raised all of those issues many, many times…since I was Foreign Secretary and beyond and I will raise them again today.
“But we have very, very long-standing relationships with this part of the world and we need to recognize what a very important relationship we have.”
Speaking to announcers at the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi, he pointed to Saudi Arabia announcing a £1bn investment in green aviation fuel on Teesside.
“That’s the kind of thing we want to encourage; in no way does it mean that we cannot stick to our principles and raise the issues that concern us all,” the Prime Minister said.
Johnson to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, before traveling to Riyadh to speak with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The prime minister has come under pressure from parliamentarians and human rights charities to condemn nations for his record and the No. 10 said he would raise Saudi Arabia’s execution of 81 men on Saturday.
Crown Prince bin Salman has also been largely shunned by the West since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which he is accused of having ordered.
Just over three years ago, Johnson described Khashoggi’s murder as a “barbaric act” and suggested that the Saudi state had “copied Vladimir Putin’s playbook” with the “ostentatious horror of this murder.”
But it was not clear whether the prime minister would mention the killing during his visit.
Tory MP Julian Lewis, chairman of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, said the government must ensure that “in trying to reduce our dependency on one source of oil and gas, we don’t end up creating a source of dependency on another unreliable source.” trustworthy”. and sometimes hostile regime”.
Polly Truscott of Amnesty International UK stressed: “Saudi oil must not be allowed to buy the world’s silence on Saudi Arabia’s appalling human rights record.”
The No. 10 said discussions would focus on “efforts to improve energy security and reduce volatility in energy and food prices,” including the possibility of agreeing increased oil supplies from the country to the UK.
But on Wednesday morning, Johnson downplayed his chances of getting the Gulf states to increase their oil production during his trip to the region.
“It’s not just about looking at the OPEC countries and what they can do to increase supply, although that’s important, there’s also the issue of the Emirates’ investment in UK wind farms, which is already huge, what else can they do?” he said. .
“When we look at the dependency that the West in particular has built on Putin’s hydrocarbons, on Putin’s oil and gas, we can see what a mistake it was because he was able to blackmail the West and bail out Western economies: we need independence. .”
Johnson said the government would set the energy strategy “next week” to include a “massive leap forward in renewables, more nuclear, using our own hydrocarbons more effectively” and sourcing fossil fuels from outside Russia.
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