Well-known new Chinese news site The Paper recently reported that the U.S. Defense Secretory testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, expressing the current administration’s intent to lift the arms export ban on Vietnam. No details are yet available; however this statement was made before President Obama’s planned visit to Vietnam. The United States partially lifted the ban in 2014 to help Vietnam patrol the seas. U.S. officials said then that, in the future, the U.S. might consider selling Vietnam weapons that can be mounted on aircraft. Last year when U.S. Defense Secretory Carter visited Vietnam, he made the promise to provide Vietnam with a US$18 million loan. In the meantime, Tom Malinowski, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, explained that multiple things need to be considered before lifting the ban, including human rights conditions.
Source: The Paper, April 29, 2016
http://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1462671