UK, Qatar sign defence cooperation agreement

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace walks towards Downing Street following the weekly Cabinet meeting at the Foreign Commonwealth Office on September 15, 2020 in London, England [Leon Neal/Getty Images]

The UK and Qatar have announced the signing of a preliminary military agreement aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation in the field of defence.

This came in a statement issued by the UK Ministry of Defence on Wednesday.

The statement reported that the Qatari Minister of State for Defence Affairs Khalid Bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah and his British counterpart Ben Wallace signed a cooperation agreement during their participation in the opening ceremony of the Joint Squadron Command Building No. 12, at the Coningsby base in Lincolnshire, UK.

The agreement includes allowing the use of the UK base by the Qatari Air Force, which has recently purchased nine Hawk aircraft.

In a speech on the sidelines of the event, the British minister affirmed the beginning of a new phase of long-standing cooperation between his country and Qatar in the field of defence.

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