Obama, traveling to Hanoi on the first leg of a historic Asia visit that will take him to Japan for the Group of Seven summit and then to the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima, told a news conference in the Vietnamese capital that while the embargo would be lifted, work still remained on human rights issues, media reports said.
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“Obama claimed that this move is not aimed at China, yet this is only a very poor lie”, said an editorial in a state-backed Chinese newspaper, accusing the US of “taking advantage of Vietnam to stir up more trouble in the South China Sea”.
“Vietnam has no policy of militarisation, but we have necessary measures together with other countries, and global friends like Japan to maintain peace, freedom of navigation, over-flight and trade in the South China Sea”, Mr Phuc said in Vietnamese.
“I would welcome it if he had been a bit stronger”, A said of Obama.
Obama, the third United States president to visit Vietnam since diplomatic relations were restored in 1995, has made a strategic “rebalance” toward Asia a centrepiece of his foreign policy.
The widely watched speech and presidential visit in Vietnam will make it “even harder for the communist leadership to justify the status quo, to sweep human rights abuses under the rug”, Duy Hoang, spokesman for the USA -based Viet Tan, which claims members inside Vietnam, said in a statement. On Monday night, the president sat down with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain at a Hanoi eatery to discuss Vietnamese culture and sample some local street food.
Asked about a Chinese warning against the US and Vietnam creating a “tinderbox” that could lead to regional conflict, Kerry pushed back, saying that it was China’s actions in the South and East China Seas that could create a tinderbox.
The way Terry Neilen sees it, lifting the ban on US arms sales to Vietnam makes sense in the face of China’s growing influence in the region.
Obama reportedly announced that the United States is fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for decades now.
Obama said it was emblematic of Vietnam’s evolution as a country honoring its history but “boldly racing into the future”.
Obama met with dissidents and nudged Vietnam’s leaders to improve human rights in remarks in Hanoi on Tuesday.
“Vietnam has demonstrated itself that it doesn’t deserve the closer ties the USA is offering”, said John Sifton, Asia policy director for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
Obama also traced the transformation of the U.S. They cheered again when he said, “Vietnam is an independent and sovereign nation, and no other nation can impose its will on you”, an apparent reference to China, which has claimed much of the seas just off Vietnam’s 2,000-mile coastline.
In addition to the end of the arms embargo, Obama announced commercial deals between USA companies and Vietnam worth over $16 billion, “including one in which Boeing will sell 100 aircraft and Pratt & Whitney will sell 135 advanced aircraft engines to VietJet, a privately owned low-priced airline”, per the NYT.
Obama also used his speech to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a US -led trade deal that has attracted considerable criticism in recent months, with both Democratic Presidential candidates and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump distancing themselves from the agreement.
Tens of thousands lined the road from Ho Chi Minh City’s airport, many waving and chanting “Obama, Obama” as his motorcade rolled towards the century-old Jade Emperor Pagoda in the city centre.
Obama’s scrapping of the weapons embargo is seen as a major boost for Hanoi, which shares American fears over Chinese expansionism in the disputed South China Sea.
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In 2014, the Obama administration eased the decades-old arms embargo to allow its former Cold War enemy to buy maritime surveillance and “security-related” systems to strengthen it with China in mind.
