Bahrain Mirror: Commenting on "establishing a UK military base in Bahrain," the British Minister of State for Defence Procurement, Philip Dunne, stressed that his country is looking forward to "broadening and deepening its contributions in the country's security and stability through the Strategic Defence and Security Review."

"We've already announced the establishment of the first permanent basing to the east of Suez since the 1970s, with the development of the naval base in Bahrain. And we look to broaden and deepen our contribution to the security and stability of the region," he said.

In response to a question about the potential of increasing the number of UK military bases in Bahrain, Dunne called for "waiting the result of Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDRS) to know what London will say about its military presence and its guarantees for the region's security."

"As you know we are building aircraft carriers that will guarantee large combating abilities to the armored UK forced and the possibility of rapid reaction," he added.

"The UK is in the midst of completing its strategic defence and security review (SDSR), which is due to be published before the end of the year," adding that "the review would lead to new matter related to the UK military deployment and London's international role." Dunne further stated, denying the halt of arms sales negotiations with Saudi Arabia due to media quarrels over the prisons case.

Responding to a question about selling the UK Typhoon fighters to the countries in the regions, Dunne said: "As you know, the government of Kuwait has chosen Typhoon fighters and has become that eighth country in the nation that uses this type and the third one on the GCC level. We welcome this announcement and look forward to signing the contract soon. We have started our talks with a number of other countries and we hope this would help increase the demand on these international aircrafts in the Gulf and world as well."

Speaking to journalists, he stressed said that his country is keen to maintain the ongoing very close relation, on the military level, with all the GCC states, including Saudi Arabia," adding: "I won't go into further details about any individual contracts. We have various relations with the armed forces, government and Saudi people. We will not discuss the nature of these relations in public."

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