The EU is determined to lift a 16-year-old arms embargo against China but hasn't decided when to do so, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday.
The US strongly opposes lifting the EU embargo, saying that could threaten Taiwan and US forces in Asia. Solana said EU countries were still debating when and how it might be lifted.
"We want to take a decision that is part of a solution, not part of a problem, and therefore it has to be well explained and understood by everybody," Solana said.
The embargo was imposed after China's leaders sent tanks and troops to crush demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, killing hundreds and possibly thousands. China has never given a full accounting of the incident.
EU countries led by France and Germany have pushed to lift the arms ban, calling it a historical relic that impedes diplomatic and trade ties with China.
"We think it is part of history, this embargo, but we have to find a manner and the moment in which it can be done without any difficulty, any problem," Solana said.
Solana's comments point to new obstacles to lifting the embargo, including a Chinese law adopted earlier this year authorizing force against Taiwan if it refuses to unify with China.
Critics have long argued the embargo shouldn't be lifted until China allows greater political and religious freedoms for its people.
Meanwhile, Washington has continued to express concern about annual increases in China's military budget. A Pentagon report issued in July said China is determined to project military power beyond Taiwan and is buying new weapon systems from Russia while modernizing its tactics and improving training.
Solana's comments follow a China-EU summit in Beijing on Monday. A joint statement issued afterward said the EU "reaffirmed its willingness to continue to work toward lifting the embargo."
Solana didn't say if Beijing was asked to meet any conditions in return, although in the past he has said China would have to live up to human-rights standards.
However, he reiterated that the embargo, when lifted, would be replaced with a "code of conduct" governing what weapons and technologies could be sold to China and for what purposes.
Solana denied US objections had blocked the embargo's lifting, but indicated Washington's views had been taken into account.
Washington has threatened to retaliate if the ban is lifted by limiting transfers of military technology to European nations.
also see story:
Blair tells China to embrace change
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
INTERCEPTION: The 30km test ceiling shows that the CSIST is capable of producing missiles that could stop inbound missiles as they re-enter the atmosphere Recent missile tests by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) show that Taiwan’s missiles are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles as they re-enter the atmosphere and pose a significant deterrent to Chinese missile threats, former Hsiung Feng III missile development project chief engineer Chang Cheng (張誠) said yesterday. The military-affiliated institute has been conducting missile tests, believed to be related to Project Chiang Kung (強弓) at Pingtung County’s Jiupeng Military Base, with many tests deviating from past practices of setting restriction zones at “unlimited” and instead clearly stating a 30.48km range, Chang said. “Unlimited” restrictions zones for missile tests is
RSS