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| Vietnam Arms Embargo to Be Fully Lifted, Obama Says in Hanoi | Vietnam Arms Embargo to Be Fully Lifted, Obama Says in Hanoi |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| HANOI, Vietnam — President Obama said at a news conference on Monday in the Vietnamese capital that the United States had agreed to lift completely its embargo on lethal weapons sales. | HANOI, Vietnam — President Obama said at a news conference on Monday in the Vietnamese capital that the United States had agreed to lift completely its embargo on lethal weapons sales. |
| “The United States is fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for some 50 years,” Mr. Obama said. | “The United States is fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for some 50 years,” Mr. Obama said. |
| Vietnam had long asked for the embargo to be revoked. The decision, which comes more than 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, involved weighing Vietnam’s human rights record against the country’s need to defend itself against an increasing threat from China, its neighbor. | |
| Lifting the arms embargo is the most important initiative that the two countries have announced during Mr. Obama’s visit. Human rights advocates had called for the embargo to remain in place in an effort to pressure Vietnam. But as the United States and Vietnam move closer together in part to help counter Chinese efforts in the South China Sea, many in Washington had urged for the embargo to be lifted entirely. | |
| However, Mr. Obama said that countering China’s presence was not the main factor in removing the restriction. | |
| “The decision to lift the ban was not based on China or any other considerations,” he said. “It was based on our desire to complete what has been a lengthy process of moving toward normalization of relations with Vietnam.” | |
| The United States restored diplomatic ties with Vietnam in 1995 and decided to lift a ban on some nonlethal equipment in 2007. The arms embargo was further eased in 2014, when the United States permitted some maritime equipment. |