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MONOGRAPH TWO
I

There are two main political developments which have taken
place with respect to Kuwait.

First. The Termination of the 1961 Defence Pact with Britain
Following the British Government’s announcement in January
1968, regarding British military withdrawal from the Gulf by the end
of 1971, Kuwait thought it desirable to open negotiations with the
United Kingdom with a view to terminating the Agreement of 19
June 1961, between the two countries. The said Agreement, taking
the form of Exchange of Notes, formed the basis upon which the
Kuwait Exclusive Agreement of 1899 with the British Government
was terminated. But the significance of the 1961 Agreement lies in
the fact that it, inter alia, obliged the British Government “to assist
the Government of Kuwait if the latter request such assistance’’.1
Clearly, this provision committed the British Government to
defend Kuwait against foreign aggression. Kuwait had already
invoked this provision immmediately after her independence which
followed the signing of the Agreement of 1961. Kuwait call for
British military assistance was precipitated by Iraqi threat, at the
time, to occupy the territory of Kuwait on the ground of its former
association with “Turkish Iraq’’.2
Consequently, the Kuwaiti and British Governments concluded
the Exchange of Notes of 13 May 1968,3 which provided for the
termination of the Agreement of 1961, as from the end of the period \ ;
of the “three-year’s notice’’ required by the 1961 Agreement. This
latter Agreement provided that “it shall continue in force until
either party gives the other at least three year’s notice of their
intention to terminate it’’. In his Note of 13 May 1968, to the British
Ambassador at Kuwait, the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, Sabah
Al-Ahmad Al-Jabir, stated that !
“. . . since Kuwait has achieved success in her international relationships,
the obligations arising from the Agreement of 19th June 1961, were no
longer appropriate. On the instructions of His Highness the Amir,
therefore, I wish to inform Your Excellency that the State of Kuwait
1. See Chapter 5 above. For texts of the Exchange of Notes of 1961 and the
Agreement of 1899, see Appendix XI, below. ;
2. See Chapter 15, above, on the “Iraqi claim to Kuwait”.
3. Exchange of Notes between the United Kingdom and the State of Kuwait
(Kuwait, 13 May 1968): British Treaty Series, No. 64, (1968), Comnd 3720.