Alwaght- The US has removed sanctions of Vietnam on trade in lethal arms, Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang has said.
Barak Obama said Monday that the United States' relationship with Vietnam is moving to a "new moment," including an end to the decades-long American arms embargo on its former war rival and billions in new business ties between the two nations.
"Vietnam very much appreciates the US decision to completely lift the ban on lethal weapon sales to Vietnam, which is the clear proof that both countries have completely normalized relations," Quang said at a joint news conference with US President Barack Obama.
Obama reportedly said that although Washington was fully lifting the ban, the sale of arms would depend on Vietnam's human rights commitments.
Obama said the move was designed to boost relations with the US’s former enemy and to eliminate a “lingering vestige of the Cold War,” AP reported.
The US partially lifted the embargo in 2014, but Hanoi sought full access to US weaponry.
The announcement comes as tensions between Washington and Beijing are running high over a reclamation project in the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands.
"They likely will view this possible move by the U.S. to bolster Vietnam's maritime domain awareness in the South China Sea as an effort to stand up to China's more assertive ambitions in the disputed waters," said Murray Hiebert, a senior advisor and deputy director of the Southeast Asia program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C, ahead of President Obama's visit.
The US has spared no efforts to flex its muscle in the Asia-Pacific, in a bid to show its global hegemony that is already waning nowadays.
The Chinese Nansha Islands in the South China Sea are rich in deposits of natural resources and also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. The US Navy is actively opposing Chinese sovereignty over the Islands by deploying additional warships to the disputed zone and conducting maneuvers in near the Chinese artificial islands and flying over them, citing the “freedom of navigation "principle as an excuse.
China has said it is determined and able to continue to safeguard its justified rights and interests of the Nansha Islands by legitimate means.
