<<China wants to buy American does not sell>>
EU leaders to review arms embargo on China
Fri December 12, 2003 04:44 PM ET
(Adds details from diplomats paragraph 3)
By Lisa Jucca
BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - European Union leaders agreed at a summit on Friday to consider lifting an arms embargo imposed on China after it crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989.
Elmat's question to the thread: Would China be better if the demo in Tianamen Square had not been crsuhed?
"Thanks to a proposal by the French president (Jacques Chirac), we asked the foreign affairs council to review the question of the embargo on selling arms to China," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told a news conference.
EU diplomats said the leaders of France, Germany and Britain all spoke in favour of ending the ban in what one called "a remarkably consensual discussion" in which even Sweden, a stickler for human rights, supported the review.
But some states were wary about moving too fast. Signalling there was no backing away from its core values, the bloc made a fresh call on Beijing to improve its respect for human rights and political and religious freedoms.
China has been pressing the EU, which calls Beijing a strategic partner, to end the arms embargo. It was imposed after the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
A senior EU official said the embargo could be lifted quite soon as a political gesture, but exports would be tightly circumscribed by a code of conduct barring sales of equipment that could be used in domestic repression or regional conflicts.
"There has been an ongoing discussion among member states of the issue and while they recognise that the political situation has moved on...human rights issues in China continue to be an important issue for member states and indeed the European public," European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin said.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told reporters the review was necessary because new rules on arms embargoes had been introduced since the ban was imposed on China.
Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said: "We think we have to move forward very carefully on this, so a compromise has been made that we will examine the matter and have a discussion on the issue but in no way at this stage decide on it."
German government sources accompanying Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to China last week said Beijing was interested in buying a mothballed German plutonium plant in a deal estimated at 50 million euros ($61.24 million).
The Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) plant in Hanau in western Germany was completed in 1991 and decommissioned four years later without being used. (additional reporting by Marie-Louise Moller)
© Reuters 2003. All Rights Reserved.
Can't participate on Iraq's looting? Right, we are going to sell weapons to China! |
