Print

Mail

wiki links

EU reaffirms plan to lift arms ban

"The sooner the better."

Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief

The EU reassured China on Thursday that it was pressing ahead with plans to lift a 15-year-old arms embargo on Beijing despite a storm sparked by its "Anti-Secession" Law targeting Taiwan.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the controversial law, which authorizes the use of force if Taipei moves towards independence, had caused "complicated atmospherics" around the debate over the EU arms ban.

But the EU plans remain on track, he said after discussion with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) in Brussels.

Solana recalled that EU leaders agreed last December to work notably on beefing up an EU code of conduct, as preparation for lifting the embargo slapped on Beijing after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

"We are working politically towards that end. We want that end to be a reality. We are working very hard ourselves on compromises that we have to find among ourselves," he told reporters.

"The sooner the better," Solana added.

Speaking after talks with the Chinese foreign minister, his Luxembourg counterpart Jean Asselborn late Thursday stressed that the EU's current Luxembourg presidency would do "its best" to secure the lifting of the embargo.

"We will do our best, as current president, to ensure that this takes place," Asselborn told a press conference in Luxembourg. "We will put all our energy into it."

Li for his part restated Beijing's view that the lifting of the embargo was in the interest of both sides.

"We believe the lifting of the arms embargo is in the interest of peoples from countries on both sides," Li said.

"We have full confidence the EU will work things out," he said.

The EU's Luxembourg presidency has set a target of agreement on lifting the ban by the end of its term at the EU helm in June.

But the Anti-Secession Law has clouded the issue.

Solana conceded that this had had a political impact. But he also said there were some "positive" elements in the Chinese law, and indicated it did not fundamentally change the EU's aim of lifting the embargo.

"The atmospherics ... may have been a little more complicated with some countries or some parliaments. We'll see how things evolve. But the political will continues to be ... to keep on working on achieving that aim."

Those demanding an end to the arms ban -- a group spearheaded by French President Jacques Chirac -- argue that the EU ban is outdated given the political changes of the last decade and a half.

Also see story:
China using `prisoners as pawns'
This story has been viewed 8846 times.