Vietnam and the United States seek closer cooperation

During a visit to the Vietnamese capital on Monday, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, US Sen. Bob Corker, said the Senate is considering lifting its ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam. The statement came amid a series of high-level meetings in the past month between Vietnamese and US officials. The meetings repeatedly touched on Hanoi’s request that the ban be lifted and for expanded ties in areas such as regional security, trade and commerce cooperation, and Vietnam’s entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Washington appeared more willing to reconsider the embargo as part of its ongoing response to the shifting security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 1995, two decades after the end of the Vietnam War, the United States and Vietnam re-established diplomatic relations. Their ties have improved markedly in recent years, and in 2007 the United States modified the defense embargo to allow sales of non-lethal military equipment and services to Vietnam on a case-by-case basis. Nonetheless, it repeatedly rejected Hanoi’s request that it lift the ban on the sale or transfer of lethal weapons, citing Vietnam’s poor human rights record.