President Obama is currently on a 3 day trip to Vietnam - his first visit to the country since taking office. And he wasted no time in making headlines - announcing the total lifting of a ban on selling weapons to the Vietnamese government. Mr Obama said the end of the longstanding ban removed a lingering vestige of the Cold War.
OK separates and Obama has made Asia absolute centrepiece of his foreign policy though this is actually his first visit to Vietnam any comment on that saying he wished he got here earlier we are now of course in the very last stages of his presidency but Vietnam has been a central part of what he called that pivot to Asia. The biggest Southeast Asian member of his trans pacific trade partnership. It is an unlikely alliance when you think about these two utterly different systems this convergence between the United States and its onetime enemy actually started with the re-establishment of normal relations back twenty one years ago ninety ninety five you could almost say it went goes back even as far as when a bit now moved away from hardline socialism is a bit 1980's clearly President Obama the first Pacific president was determined to use this three day visit to cement what's been achieved up to now and make sure that these utterly different political systems and different views on many things did not get in the way of what he sees as an essential partnership. President Obama came here to bury historical wounds. And to cement will once have seemed an impossible mention. The war that killed millions of Vietnam and nearly sixty thousand U.S. servicemen and women and which ended with a humiliating American withdrawal forty one years ago is no longer an obstacle nor a divergent ideological outlooks Mr Obama shook hands with Vietnam's communist president in front of a statue of ho Cheam in the man who once symbolized resistance to U.S. power but it's the rising power now of man's need for China which has driven these former enemies together. With Mr Obama announcing an end to the long arms embargo against Vietnam and also announced that you know States is for we lifting the ban on the sale meant to be an awesome or transport. Sales will still strict requirements including those with human rights but this change will ensure that has access to the equipment. It needs to defend itself. The call by lifting the arms sales restrictions. President Obama isn't just dismantling the last vestiges of America's war here in Vietnam is also showing that in a dynamic. But potentially volatile region. The old concerns about human rights and democracy an out front by the strategic and commercial requirements to build new partnerships. Even with a one party communist state like Vietnam. China's expanded military presence on islands claimed by Vietnam and others. Has sparked fears over its ambitions. A robust U.S. presence in the region will they hope kerb Chinese power. And Vietnam's young population of ninety million is eager for the opportunities provided by trade with the United States growth here is driven by exports and many of those go to the U.S. now in the final months of his presidency. Mr Obama hopes the foundations he's laying with his Asian diplomacy will survive the change of administration in Washington next year. The US he says must look to the future here not the past. Jonathan this increasing militarization effectively what does it mean practically what is going to buy is that envisaged that it might have to use these arms. I don't think it's about buying weapons this is much more of a symbolic act but never their weapons the arms embargo was partially lifted two years ago and yet we haven't seen. Rushing in to buy even equipment it could have bought them realistically Vietnam still has an awful lot of Russian equipment left over these days as a Cold War ally. It won't be wonderful. Mission money on heart say to be up American equipment I want to provoke China. It won't want to be dependent on American equipment either. This is much more about cementing an alliance about showing Vietnam that it doesn't matter about the ideological differences. It doesn't really matter about the human right. That's going to has been strongly condemned by human rights groups. What matters is engagement at every level building trust and showing that Mr Obama's interest in this region his his belief that America's interests are absolutely anchored in the Asia Pacific region is the overriding concern and that they can build partnerships with the most unlikely countries you have to put Vietnam with its one party commonest system into that basket.
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