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Solana: Lifting arms ban on long-term agenda
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-09-06 14:48

SHANGHAI - Europe's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that Brussel's long-term arms embargo on China will remain in place, but in time would be lifted.

Europe's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that Brussel's long-term arms embargo on China will remain in place, but in time would be lifted. [AFP]

"Both sides are looking for the right time -- this an agreement which is part of yesterday and not part of tomorrow," he said at press briefing in Shanghai after attending the EU-China summit in Beijing.

"We want to resolve it. We think that it's part of history, but we have to find the manner and the moment when this can be done," Solana said, refusing to lay out any timetable.

European leaders, in an initiative led by France and Germany, agreed last December to draft an accord on scrapping the embargo imposed on China in 1989.

But the move lost steam amid fierce opposition from the United States.

"This embargo is not a military decision, it's a political decision," Solana said, adding that this required the agreement of all 25 EU member states.

He denied that China's anti-secession law had influenced the EU, although observers believe that the passage of the law sent the wrong message around the world by raising cross-strait tensions.

"The EU does not make any decision according to the demands of others," Solana insisted when pushed on whether the US opposition had influenced the EU.

"The embargo's removal would not impact the current trade of weapons at all," he added.

Washington feels that lifting the embargo would send the Chinese the wrong message on human rights, which it has been asked to improve, and also alter the military balance in Asia, particularly in the Taiwan Strait.

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