The chancellor,\u00a0Kwasi Kwarteng, held undisclosed meetings with senior executives of Saudi Arabian firms when he was the business secretary, documents acquired by the Guardian show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meetings occurred in January, when Kwarteng visited the kingdom for a two-day trip under his previous ministerial role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Documents released using the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) show Kwarteng held undisclosed meetings with the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world\u2019s biggest oil producer; the chief executive of Sabic, the world\u2019s fourth largest petrochemical company; and the chair of Alfanar Group, an industrial conglomerate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, transparency disclosures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy\u00a0did not contain any reference to meetings\u00a0during the period Kwarteng was in Saudi Arabia when originally published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While meetings with foreign government figures are not required to be declared,\u00a0encounters with business executives should be. A government spokesperson said there had been an \u201cadministrative oversight\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kwarteng was flown around the kingdom by Saudi Aramco, which operates a number of helicopters, jets and airports. The flights provided the opportunity for the oil company to lobby the minister then responsible for the UK\u2019s energy policy, the documents suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minutes of meetings held by Kwarteng written by an official that accompanied him include a section titled \u201cAramco flight talk\u201d, noting Kwarteng discussed the \u201chistory and opportunities for the company\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other points of discussion on the flight were redacted by the business department on the grounds of potential prejudice of UK-Saudi relations, possible harm to the formulation of UK government policy, and the need to protect commercial interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kwarteng\u2019s travel by Aramco aircraft also raises questions about compliance with the ministerial code, which states that offers of free travel \u201cshould not normally be accepted. The only exception to this is in the case of an offer of transport from an overseas government provided no undue obligation is created.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its response to an FoI request, the business department said \u201cin some cases, transport and accommodation was provided by Aramco, but this was organised by the Saudi energy ministry, who worked closely with the British embassy [in] Riyadh on the programme.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to his itinerary, Kwarteng met Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, at Ithra, a cultural centre owned and operated by Aramco. The official\u2019s minutes note only that Kwarteng \u201ctoured the library and the exhibitions (contemporary art, Islamic art and Aramco exhibits)\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the meeting with Nasser was not disclosed on the list of ministerial meetings published in July, some details were revealed on 20 September by a business department minister in response to a parliamentary question from the Green party MP Caroline Lucas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The climate minister, Graham Stuart, admitted Kwarteng had met Nasser, adding: \u201cDiscussions covered clean energy innovation and Aramco\u2019s sustainability initiatives, including hydrogen technology, carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and the reduction of fugitive emissions associated with oil and gas production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kwarteng\u2019s other meetings with Saudi executives have never been disclosed by the government in any form. His visit to a Sabic plant was, however, disclosed by the company in a tweet. Documents obtained by FoI request show that he also met Sabic\u2019s chief executive, Yousef al-Benyan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lucas criticised the lack of transparency and called for the meetings with Aramco and Sabic to be \u201cfully and comprehensively\u201d disclosed. She said: \u201cIf our then energy secretary, now chancellor, has failed to declare his meetings properly, how are we to believe that our climate policies have not been squandered, our energy security has not been compromised, and Saudi Arabia\u2019s appalling human rights record has not been brushed under the carpet?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A briefing pack prepared for Kwarteng before his trip by civil servants, which was also obtained through FoI,<\/strong>\u00a0sheds light on the information provided to ministers before travelling to Saudi Arabia, including on the status of human rights in the kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final sub-heading, \u201chuman rights\u201d, has <\/strong>just four bullet points, one of which was redacted by the business department, which cited potential prejudice of UK-Saudi relations. The other three bullet points all stress positive developments in Saudi human rights, stating for example that \u201cwomen\u2019s rights continue to improve dramatically\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One bullet point states that judges give \u201cequal weight\u201d to a mother\u2019s and father\u2019s views in divorce cases, while another noted that the World Bank had praised Saudi Arabia for eliminating restrictions on women\u2019s rights to employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was no reference in the unredacted bullet points to what Amnesty International described as Saudi Arabia\u2019s \u201cappalling human rights record\u201d, which includes the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, persecution of women\u2019s rights activists and peaceful critics, and abuse of migrants\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Polly Truscott, Amnesty International UK\u2019s foreign affairs expert, said: \u201cFor years, we\u2019ve been concerned that Saudi human rights abuses were being downplayed by successive ministers to clear the way for new trade deals, including massive arms shipments. This briefing seems to confirm those fears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement, a government spokesperson blamed the failure to declare the meetings on an \u201cadministrative oversight\u201d and said the data would be updated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They added: \u201cThe briefing being referred to is only one part of wider\u200b briefing [Kwarteng] received on \u200bSaudi Arabia, which included content on human rights, recent political developments in Saudi Arabia and UK-Saudi engagement activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kwarteng did not respond to a request for comment. Aramco declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The chancellor,\u00a0Kwasi Kwarteng, held undisclosed meetings with senior executives of Saudi Arabian firms when he was the business secretary, documents acquired by the Guardian show. The meetings occurred in January, when Kwarteng visited the kingdom for a two-day trip under his previous ministerial role. Documents released using the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) show Kwarteng […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4791,11363,13118,8657,7167,3803,5522,7358,5268,262,9328,7960,1425,8938,7823,7396,10391,6157,6060,5494,4780,11954,11355,4028,5491,2264,10840,6722,10954,13157,9463,7519,5205,7458,7776,9833,7343,6864,278,5382,5441,11973,10302,12715,8160,1364,8210,5655,6675,10329,6258,6584,12605,10412,5320,36,2920,594],"class_list":["post-26391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-abuse","tag-aircraft","tag-amin-nasser","tag-amnesty","tag-amnesty-international","tag-aramco","tag-arms","tag-bank","tag-british","tag-bullet","tag-carbon","tag-case","tag-chancellor","tag-clean-energy","tag-code","tag-data","tag-declined","tag-divorce","tag-embassy","tag-energy","tag-energy-ministry","tag-engagement","tag-flight","tag-freedom","tag-gas","tag-government","tag-human-rights","tag-hydrogen","tag-international","tag-islamic","tag-jets","tag-judges","tag-july","tag-khashoggi","tag-kwesi-kwarteng","tag-meeting","tag-migrants","tag-ministers","tag-mp","tag-murder","tag-oil","tag-one","tag-plant","tag-redacted","tag-saudi","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-saudi-aramco","tag-security","tag-technology","tag-trade","tag-transparency","tag-travel","tag-uk","tag-uk-government","tag-women","tag-world","tag-world-bank","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}