President Obama announced Monday that the U.S. will lift its weapons embargo on its old enemy Vietnam, in a move he said will help the two countries fully normalize relations.
The move will end an embargo on U.S. arms sales to the Southeast Asian country that has been in place since 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War. Obama had already removed a portion of the ban in 2014 to allow the sale of equipment intended for maritime security.
“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,” Obama said Monday in a press conference in Vietnam with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang.
The president added that his decision “underscores the commitment the United States to a fully normalized relationship with Vietnam, including strong defense ties with Vietnam and this region for the long term.”
Leading up to his announcement, human rights groups had called on the president to withhold lifting the ban until further progress is made on human rights by the country’s Communist party.
Obama said the sale of weapons will be examined on a case-by-case basis, and said sales will need to meet “strict requirements” including “those related to human rights.”
Answering a reporter’s question, the president rejected the idea that the lifting of the embargo was in response to China’s military buildup of the South China Sea.
