Vietnam Urges US to Lift Lethal Weapons Ban Amid S. China Sea Tensions
May 02, 2016 6:00 PM
Voice of America
FILE - A Vietnamese coast guard officer looks at a Vietnamese coast guard vessel in the South China Sea, May 14, 2014. Vietnam has faced increasingly aggressive Chinese territorial claims to sections of the South China Sea, where Vietnamese maritime patrols have faced off against Chinese naval forces.
AUSTIN, TEXAS— Vietnam's ambassador to the United States has called on President Barack Obama to fully lift a "lethal weapons" embargo on the Southeast Asian nation.
Addressing the recent Vietnam War Summit in Austin, Texas, Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh said Obama's planned visit this month only underscores the strength of U.S.-Vietnamese relations, and that a full relaxation of the ban should reflect that level of trust.
"Today, Vietnam and the U.S. have a solid foundation for a stronger partnership," he said. "Vietnam urges the U.S. to fully lift the lethal weapons ban, [because] Vietnam believes that this element of barrier of the past should be removed to reflect our full normalization of relations started two decades ago, and the current level of our comprehensive partnership."
On the day Vinh spoke, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that he would support lifting restrictions on the sale of weapons to Vietnam.
Vietnam Ambassador to the United States Pham Quang Vinh delivered the speech at the Vietnam War Summit.
The U.S. partially lifted its three decade ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam in October 2014, immediately after Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, who also is deputy prime minister, met with Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington.
The sudden shift in policy drew criticism from various rights groups, including New York-based Human Rights Watch, which has long protested Hanoi's treatment of opposition figures and ethnic and religious minorities.
FILE - Pham Quang Vinh, Vietnam Ambassador to the U.S., meets Luci Baines Johnson, a daughter of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, during the Vietnam War Summit at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, April 28, 2016.
At the time, the State Department described the move as "allowing for the future transfer of maritime security-related" military hardware to its former foe, and said that because the U.S. is aware of human rights concerns about Vietnam, all sales would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Vietnam has since faced increasingly aggressive Chinese territorial claims to large swaths of the resource-rich South China Sea, where Vietnamese maritime patrols have faced off against Chinese naval forces on several occasions.
Hanoi has long denied accusations from human rights organizations on media censorship and restricted Internet access, saying it does not jail dissidents, but imprisons only convicted criminals.
Kerry is expected to join the state visit by Obama, who will be the third consecutive U.S. president to make the trip.
