President Barack Obama, who is on a three day visit to Vietnam, on Monday announced the United States is lifting a decade-long arms embargo on the country.
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“The decision to lift the ban was not based on China or any other considerations”.
A major talking point will be the lifting of a U.S. arms embargo, a last vestige of the decade-long war between the two nations.
A large group of USA correspondents has been granted visas to report on Mr Obama’s first visit to the country and the third by a USA president since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975.
In an article entitled ” Obama Aims to Deepen Ties on Asia Trip”, The Wall Street Journal noted that President Barack Obama will spend three days in Vietnam, an unusually long presidential visit for a single country.
However, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said via Twitter that Obama was opting to “arm Vietnam as (an) anti-China ally rather than care about its ongoing repression”.
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang after an arrival ceremony at the presidential palace in Hanoi, Vietnam May 23, 2016.
The 12 signatories to the TPP agreement are: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
Advocates argue an embargo lift is vital to helping Vietnam improve coastal defences and bolster its outdated, largely Russian-origin military equipment to better counter Beijing.
President Barack Obama arrived Sunday in Vietnam to discuss the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) as well as loosening a USA arms embargo, much to the frustration of China.
The lifting of the embargo will effectively put to bed all the lingering issues from the Vietnam War, said the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Hanoi. China’s growing military and economic clout in the region is increasing its leverage with Southeast Asian nations, with the USA trying to counter those gains by improving defense ties in the region.
In the commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, Obama will meet entrepreneurs and tout a US -led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that is set to transform Vietnam’s manufacturing-led economy.
Obama’s visit follows what the Pentagon called an “unsafe” intercept last week by Chinese fighter jets of a USA military reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea.
President Obama lifted the 41-year-old US arms embargo against Vietnam Monday in an apparent effort to shore up the communist country’s defenses against an increasingly aggressive China. He said China would be watching the “developing strategic partnership” between the United States and Vietnam closely – and said he expected it to contribute to peace and stability in the region.
In Hanoi, Obama will meet Vietnam’s triumvirate of leaders, President Tran Dai Quang, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong.
“The reason I remain confident is it’s the right thing to do”, he told reporters in Vietnam where he is now on a three-day visit.
In a muted reference to its parlous rights situation, Obama said Washington “still had differences” with Vietnam on human rights but “modest progress” had been made.
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The “policy” part of the Washington government that wants the embargo lifted and the arms sales made also points to Vietnam’s historical role in opposing some of China’s aspirations in the region. Several second-tier Vietnamese officials shook the president’s hand before he climbed into his limousine for a quick trip to his hotel after almost 24 hours of travel.
