PM stresses need to see through social change in speech at Bahrain summit but makes no mention of women’s rights

Theresa May urged Gulf leaders to follow through with social and economics reforms in her speech at a summit in Bahrain, telling leaders of the oil-rich nations both the Gulf and Britain had to build “economies that work for everyone”.

Despite being the first woman to address the Gulf Cooperation Council of the six regional leaders, May made no direct mention of women’s rights, but said leaders had to see through fundamental economic and social change.

“We in the UK are determined to continue to be your partner of choice as you embed international norms and see through the reforms which are so essential for all of your people,” she said in her speech at the Sakhir Palace in Manama, flanked by the kings of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and the leaders of Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

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The prime minister said the UK’s influence on social and economic reform in the Gulf was “only possible because the strength of the relationship between our countries, and the respect that we have for each other, enables us to speak frankly and honestly as friends”.

Rights campaigners in Bahrain have argued that although the UK has been assisting Bahrain with judicial and police reform since 2012, that engagement has not prevented crackdowns on journalists and pro-democracy activists in the country.

MPs in the UK have called the trip “the shabby face of Brexit” and said the prime minister must not let the desire for trade and security cooperation override concerns about human rights, as well as the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.

May said she had been “encouraged by recent economic and social reforms you have taken forward and by the bold vision set out by all of the Gulf states for more fundamental and lasting change”, citing the economic reforms laid out in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

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Sayed Alwadaei, the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said: “Theresa May talks about being the ‘partner of choice’ for reform in the Gulf, but we’ve already seen what that means in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, where the UK has been involved for years.



“British engagement has meant managing repression instead of ending it, shielding the country from UN probes into its violations and being silent on the cases of rights campaigners like Nabeel Rajab.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Theresa May poses with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders for a group picture. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Britain’s cooperation thus far had included arms deals and helping to secure a seat for Saudi Arabia at the UN human rights council, Alwadaei said. “The British government has for years helped sustain repression and impunity in the Gulf under the guise of its partnerships with them, and that looks set to continue under Theresa May’s new vision,” he said.

During her speech, which laid out the UK’s plans for a £3bn defence investment in the region, May said the UK would rely on its “oldest and most dependable friends” as it prepared to leave the European Union. “That is the spirit in which I come here today,” she said.

“I am determined that we should seize the opportunity to get out into the world and to shape an even bigger global role for my country: yes, to build new alliances, but more importantly, to go even further in working with old friends, like our allies here in the Gulf, who have stood alongside us for centuries.”

May said her aim was to step up dialogue and trade, “not to develop a transactional relationship but rather to forge a strategic relationship, a relationship based on true partnership and an enduring commitment between our countries and our peoples”.

She also stressed the importance of the Iran nuclear deal, but said the UK remained “clear-eyed” about the country’s threat to the stability of the Middle East. The US president-elect, Donald Trump, has threatened to scrap the deal, signed by six major powers including Britain.

During her visit to Bahrain, May has met all six leaders for short bilateral talks. Downing Street sources said Saudi Arabia’s role in the Yemen conflict was raised with King Salman, though she did not call for an independent UN investigation into the bombing campaign.

No 10 would not confirm whether specific cases of imprisoned or exiled dissidents in the Gulf had been raised during the talks.

MPs from the all-party parliamentary group on democracy and human rights in the Gulf wrote to May on Tuesday, asking her to raise the case of Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, who is facing up to 15 years in prison for offences including insulting the state in an article he wrote for the New York Times.

“The European parliament, the United Nations and the US state department have all expressly called for his release from prison,” the letter said. “To date, the United Kingdom has not done likewise.”