Re: Europe delays lifting China arms embargo

quotes :

[LatelineNews: 2005-3-18] PARIS - French President
Jacques Chirac said on Friday the European Union was
clearly in favour of lifting a ban on arms sales to
China.

"You know the European position, it is clearly for
lifting the embargo," he told a news conference after
talks with the leaders of Germany, Spain, and Russia.
The United States wants the embargo to remain.

end of quotes

On the sales :

quotes :

French President Jacques Chirac said that lifting an EU
arms ban on China 'does not mean selling arms' to
Beijing, in an interview with the Japanese daily Asahi
Shimbun. 'I want to reassure the Japanese who have
expressed concerns,' he told the newspaper, according to
the transcript of the interview released to reporters
accompanying Chirac at an EU summit here. 'Lifting the
embargo does not mean selling arms.

Europeans have no intention of committing themselves to
a policy of arms exports to China,' he said, before
adding: 'Neither does lifting the embargo mean ending
arms export controls'. The EU arms sales ban has been in
place since 1989 when pro-democracy students in Beijing
were crushed by the Chinese military, but France has led
a group of EU countries arguing that it is outdated and
should be lifted.

end of quotes