News Digest

Been a while coming: US lifts 40-year arms ban to boost Vietnam sea defense

In a decision likely to anger China, the US is partly lifting a 40-year ban on arms sales to former foe Vietnam to help boost defenses in the tense South China Sea. The historic easing of the ban in place since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 will only apply to maritime equipment, State Department officials stressed, and comes amid warming ties and as Hanoi makes “modest” improvements to human rights. A prohibition on sales of other kinds of lethal weapons, such as tanks, will stay in place as Washington pushes Hanoi to improve its human rights situation. US officials denied the policy change was “anti-China” and insisted they had no specific sales to outline so far, but would consider each request from Hanoi on a “case-by-case” basis. And they sought to allay any concerns from Beijing saying it was purely a defensive measure.

We’re not talking about destabilizing systems, we’re talking about defensive capabilities… These are not things that are going to tip the regional balance.

A State Department official

Although the United States has not taken sides in the South China Sea territorial disputes, it has warned Beijing against “destabilizing actions” amid a series of tense maritime incidents, including one earlier this year, where Beijing’s placement of an oil rig in waters also claimed by Vietnam sparked deadly riots in the Southeast Asian nation. So far, Washington has only been allowed to sell unarmed patrol boats to the Vietnamese coastguard since a total ban on military sales was lifted in 2006. That could now change. And airborne defense systems would also be considered for sale if they included a maritime capacity. Officials said however that the easing of the ban did not mean all arms sales were now on the table to the communist-run authorities amid continuing concerns about rights such as freedom of expression and religion.

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 hinderance to our ability to provide legitimate maritime capacity.

An unnamed State Department official