During his reign Abdullah maintained close relations with the United States and the United Kingdom and bought billions of dollars worth of defense equipment from both states. He also gave women the right to vote for municipal councils and to compete in the Olympics. Abdullah maintained the status quo when there were waves of protest in the kingdom during the Arab Spring. According to a 2013 BBC report, Saudi Arabia could obtain nuclear weapons at will from Pakistan during Abdullah's reign due to the close relations between the two countries. The King had a longstanding relationship with Pakistan, and brokered a compromise between ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and General Pervez Musharraf, whom he had requested to be exiled to Saudi Arabia for a 10-year exile, following his ouster in the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état.