U.S. to Lift Arms Embargo on
Vietnam
The
United States will fully lift an arms embargo on Vietnam that has been in place
since 1975, U.S. President Barack Obama announced
(WaPo) on a visit to Hanoi. Speaking at a
news conference with President Tran Dai Quang, Obama said the decision aimed
"based on our desire to complete what has been a lengthy process of moving
towards normalization with Vietnam." He also said that the two countries
share concerns over Chinese
provocations in the region. On Tuesday, Obama
will meet with business and civil society leaders in Hanoi and give a speech on
U.S.-Vietnam relations, before traveling to Ho Chi Minh city. A Chinese foreign
ministry spokeswoman
said (SCMP) the country welcomed a "normal
and friendly" relationship between the United States and Vietnam. But a
state news editorial warned that rapprochement should not be used to
"threaten or even damage the strategic
interests of a third country (Xinhua)."
ANALYSIS
"For
the White House, the decision on lifting the embargo has come down to a debate
over trying to improve Vietnam’s poor human rights record versus enabling
Vietnam to better defend itself against an increasing threat from China in the
South China Sea. Washington has for years made lifting the ban contingent on
Vietnam’s improving human rights for its people, and has prodded Vietnam to
allow more freedom of speech and to release political prisoners. But as
tensions with China have escalated in the South China Sea, the sentiment in the
Obama administration has shifted
toward lifting the ban, American officials
familiar with the discussions said. Vietnam’s government, pressed by an ever
more powerful China, knows it cannot stand up to Beijing alone and is
cautiously moving toward increased ties with the United States," Jane
Perlez writes for the New York Times.
"Vietnam
remains one of the biggest jailers of journalists in the world, and the country
is run by a one-party regime that engineered a change in leadership earlier
this year in an opaque manner, with virtually no public input. When independent
candidates—i.e., men and women who did not belong to the Communist Party—tried
to run in elections earlier this year for the National Assembly, which is a
rubber stamp legislature, the government prevented most of them from even
running. Still, as I have noted before, Vietnam’s enormous
strategic importance makes it worthy of a closer defense
relationship with the United States, including arms sales. Unlike neighboring
states such as Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, or Cambodia, Vietnam has a
highly professional military and is relatively stable, if authoritarian,"
CFR's Joshua Kurlantzick writes in this blog post.
"Vietnam
has emerged as a country increasingly central to U.S. strategy in the
Asia-Pacific in spite of the lingering
challenges inherent in the two-decade old diplomatic
relationship. Economically, for instance, Hanoi is one of just four Southeast
Asian countries that is party to the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
and is an important partner in ongoing U.S. regional initiatives as well such
as the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI). And on defense, Vietnam, a frontline
state in the South China Sea disputes, has not only been a member of key U.S.
initiatives like the Southeast Asia Maritime Security Initiative (MSI), but has
worked with Washington to enhance its contributions to global security in
fields like peacekeeping," Prashanth Parameswaran writes for the Diplomat.
