The US government needs to improve and accelerate its process for approving foreign arm sales, US Senator John McCain said on Thursday, warning that US firms were losing billions of dollars of potential orders to countries like Russia.
McCain, who heads the powerful US Senate Armed Services Committee, said both the White House and US Department of State were too slow to process requests for arms sales from US allies and coalition partners, and that he frequently received complaints from visiting defense ministers.
“We need to streamline that process, perhaps even with legislation. It’s not working,” McCain told reporters. “These countries deserve a decision. If it’s no, it’s no. If it’s yes, it’s yes.”
Any legislative changes would be led by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees foreign military sales, McCain said.
He said US Senator Bob Corker, who heads that committee, had also expressed frustration about arms sales delays.
McCain said that Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar had recently purchased billions of dollars worth of equipment from Russia while waiting for potential US arms sales to be processed.
US government officials say efforts to reform the arcane US export control regime are starting to pay off, but that they have more work to do to cope with the current record level of US foreign military sales and to improve the often sluggish approval process.
McCain said it was important for the US to continue supporting Israel, which had traditionally expressed reservations about large arms sales to Middle Eastern countries.
However, changing realities in the Middle East made it important to ensure that countries in the region had the equipment they needed to engage in actual fighting, he said. He said Israel was also relaxing its concerns given that it was facing the same enemy — Iran — as countries with a Sunni Muslim majority.
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