§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to his answer of 14 July 2003,Official Report, column 48W, on arms promotion activities, if he will list the Ministers carrying out promotion activities in the Czech Republic, the dates on which such conversations took place and the transactions which were discussed; and if he will make a statement. [129510]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 11 September 2003]: I refer the right hon. Member to my previous answer on 9 September 2003, Official Report, column 282W.
I discussed the proposed sale of Gripen fighter aircraft by a UK/Swedish consortium on 25 January 2002 with my then Czech counterpart, Jan Kavan, and informally on other occasions. Ben Bradshaw met the Czech Defence Minister, Stanislav Tvrdik, on 5 March 2002 where they discussed the Gripen proposal. I am not aware of any other meetings during 2002 where Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers discussed UK arms exports with Czech colleagues.