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| Image: Chuck Hagel via Flickr.com |
By Paul J. Leaf
Washington needs a strong partner in Vietnam to counter Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.
As the U.S. slashes its military budget and faces new and deepening crises across the world, it needs strong partners, particularly in Asia, where regular Chinese incursions threaten the status quo. The U.S. should thus end its ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam. Doing so will not only strengthen Vietnam and bring it further into the U.S. camp, but could also improve human rights there if the U.S. properly conditions the arms sales.
In 1984, the U.S. imposed an arms embargo against Vietnam because of its poor human rights record. In 2007, the Bush administration eased it, permitting the export of certain non-lethal defense items to Vietnam. Still, Hanoi’s continued human rights abuses have limited Washington’s willingness to draw closer to it. Among other things, Vietnam limits press, speech and religious freedoms, curtails ethnic minorities’ and workers’ rights, and lacks due process and an independent judiciary.
But a changed security environment requires the U.S. to reconsider its remaining arms ban against Vietnam. The U.S., which is reducing its military spending while being pulled into fresh and intensifying conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, needs strong partners to help it respond to China’s increasingly hostile rise.
Read the full story at The Diplomat