WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States yesterday partially lifted a long-time ban on lethal weapon sales to Vietnam to help it improve maritime security, a historic move that comes nearly 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War.
“The State Department has taken steps to allow for the future transfer of maritime security-related defense articles to Vietnam,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a briefing.State Department officials told a separate briefing that the decision would ease a ban on sales of lethal weapons to Vietnam that has been in place since the end of the Vietnam War, although only for maritime security purposes at this point.
They said requests from Vietnam for any specific weapons would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
The focus would be on helping Vietnam patrol and defend itself in the South China Sea, amid growing naval challenges from China, the officials said, but future weapons sales could include airborne systems as well as ships.US Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, welcomed the news but also called for more work on human rights.
“Easing the lethal arms ban on Vietnam for the purpose of maritime security will strengthen our defense cooperation in ways that benefit both countries,” McCain said. “How much more we can do in this regard, and how quickly we are able to do it, depends greatly on additional steps by Vietnam to respect and defend the human rights of the Vietnamese people.”
The decision drew immediate fire from human rights groups worried that Washington could lose leverage over Vietnam.
“It’s too soon; they haven’t earned it,” said John Sifton, Asia advocate at the nonprofit group Human Rights Watch.
“They are still arresting people. The number of arrests and convictions has gone down from its peak in 2013, but … the raw number of people going into the system is still larger than the number of people being released,” he said.
