US lifts 40-year arms ban to boost Vietnam maritime power
Iran Press TV
Fri Oct 3, 2014 8:38AM GMT
The United States has decided to sell maritime weaponry to Vietnam, a move likely to anger China which has accused Washington of interfering in its dispute with regional countries over the South China Sea.
The US is partially lifting a 40-year ban on arms sales to the Southeast Asian country to strengthen its former enemy's military power in the tense sea, AFP reported on Friday.
'What's driving this is not a sudden desire to transfer military equipment to Vietnam writ large, but a specific need in the region,' an unnamed State Department official was quoted as saying.
The arms embargo has been in place since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The US war of aggression, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, killed almost three million Vietnamese.
'It's useful in trying to deal with the territorial disputes in the South China Sea to bolster the capacity of our friends in the region to maintain a maritime presence in some capacity,' said the official.
The decision is to adjust the current policy 'to allow the transfer of defense equipment, including lethal defense equipment, for maritime security purposes only," US Secretary of State John Kerry told his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh during talks on Thursday.
An embargo on sales of other kinds of lethal weapons, such as tanks, will stay in place.
'It's not an indication that we are going to provide all lethal assistance now. It just simply says we can remove what has been a hindrance to our ability to provide legitimate maritime capacity,' said another unnamed State Department official.
Beijing claims the South China Sea in its entirety, while other countries including the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam also have claims to the area and are in dispute with China.
China accuses Washington of meddling in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea.
SB/GJH
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