UK/USA — Defence Secretary urges US to ratify defence trade treaty

The Unit­ed States must ‘deliv­er us what we were promised’ and rat­i­fy a long-await­ed defence trade co-oper­a­tion agree­ment with the UK, Defence Sec­re­tary Dr Liam Fox told opin­ion-mak­ers in Wash­ing­ton DC ear­li­er this week.

Defence Sec­re­tary Dr Liam Fox (stock image) Source: Har­land Quar­ring­ton, Min­istry of Defence, UK Click to enlarge

Dr Fox robust­ly called for the US to rat­i­fy the treaty between Britain and the Americans. 

Both gov­ern­ments signed the treaty three years ago but the Unit­ed States has yet to rat­i­fy the agree­ment which would see a reduc­tion of bureau­cra­cy involved in defence trade rela­tions between the two countries. 

Dur­ing his first vis­it to the Unit­ed States as Defence Sec­re­tary, Dr Fox held meet­ings with key sen­a­tors and called on the US to rat­i­fy the treaty with­out fur­ther delay. 

Speak­ing at the Her­itage Foun­da­tion in Wash­ing­ton DC, Dr Fox said: 

“We are very keen to see the rela­tion­ship flour­ish. We want to be a part­ner with the Unit­ed States.” 

Dr Fox went on to say: 

“When it comes to a treaty of this nature, we expect to see fair play and we do not expect to see undue delay. We expect the Unit­ed States and the politi­cians of the Unit­ed States to deliv­er us what we were promised.” 

Press release
Min­istry of Defence, UK