Lifting of Vietnam arms ban a vital US move

Rapprochement between Washington and Hanoi has moved an extra mile towards deeper engagement following the US decision to lift a decades-old ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam 40 years after a the bitter US– Vietnamese war ended.
Amid growing tension with China over a maritime dispute, the lifting of arms embargo is vital as it will allow Vietnam to diversify and modernise its Soviet-era weaponry, as well as position itself as one of the regional powers.
Experts expect Vietnam is likely to seek aircraft such as Lockheed Martin Corp.’s P-3 Orion surveillance plane and vessels to patrol coastal waters as well as radar systems. Vietnam’s estimated total budget to buy military equipment is at about $1.6 billion. Vietnam has become one of the world’s most eager arms importers. From 2011 to 2015, its purchases — primarily from Russia – grew nearly 700 percent.
For Washington, the move partly eliminates one of the last vestiges of the Cold War to establish stronger relations. This is partly driven by mutual concern over China, particularly Beijing’s increasing claims to more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Washington is trying to counter Beijing’s growing influence by improving defence ties in the region. But the US maintains the Vietnam decision has nothing to do with China. Barrack Obama said on Monday that the lifting of the arms ban wasn’t meant as a counterweight to China.
There were mixed reactions from China. China’s official Xinhua News Agency, which cautiously welcomed the move, wrote on Sunday that such a rapprochement should not be used by the United States as a tool to threaten or even damage the strategic interests of a third country.
The tone of other newspapers was hostile. China’s Global Times newspaper slammed the lifting of a decades-old US arms embargo against Vietnam, saying the move was aimed at Beijing and calling Obama’s assurances to the contrary “a very poor lie” that exacerbated “the strategic antagonism between Washington and Beijing”. Two decades since the former enemies restored diplomatic ties, the embargo is now a past as both sides are keen to promote relations. This is seen in steady growth of ties. The US has become Vietnam’s second-largest trading partner after China. Lifting the remaining limits on lethal weapons sales would affirm the ongoing normalisation in ties.
Further, Vietnam has agreed to hefty concessions to ensure passage of the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership.
On the sidelines of Obama’s visit to Vietnam, Boeing Co. signed an order for 100 jets from VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co. valued at $11.3 billion. Delivery of the Boeing 737 Max 200 planes will run for four years beginning in 2019 and will help the carrier expand its fleet to 200 by the end of 2023. Separately, General Electric announced an agreement to build 1,000 megawatts of wind-power plants in the country by 2025. As Washington and Beijing jockey for influence in Asia, tensions will keep mounting in the strategically important South China Sea.
The US administration strategic step to lift the arms embargo is a significant one not just for US-Vietnam relations, but also for Obama’s foreign policy legacy and broader regional dynamics in the strategic Asia-Pacific region.