On Monday, President Obama announced in Hanoi that the U.S. is "fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for some 50 years." Obama, speaking at a joint news conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, said arms sales will still need to meet "strict requirements, including those related to human rights," but called the embargo "a lingering vestige of the Cold War." Vietnam had pressed the U.S. for the change, and Obama alluded to the increasingly aggressive posture of China in the South China Sea, saying, "There is, I think, a genuine mutual concern with respect to maritime issues with respect to the United States and Vietnam."
Obama also portrayed the lifting of the arms embargo as a tool for fully restoring bilateral ties between the U.S. and Vietnam, mended during the Bill Clinton administration but still strained after the Vietnam War. Obama and Quang oversaw the signing of a deal by low-cost carrier VietJet to buy 100 Boeing passenger jets, and GE signed a deal to sell wind turbines to Vietnam. Obama also said he believes Congress will approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal despite election-year politics. You can watch Obama announcing the end of the weapons ban below. Peter Weber
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