Vietnam's Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh, at the Shangri-La Hotel on June 4, 2016.ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The recent lifting of the US arms embargo against Vietnam boosted trust between the former enemies, but significant weapons purchases are some way off, a senior Vietnamese military official said on Saturday (June 4).
Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh told Reuters possible weapons buys were part of a long-planned strengthening of Vietnamese-US relations across economic, political, cultural and security fronts.
“We are not sure what we can buy from the US or what we want to buy,” Vinh said in some of the first public comments from a Vietnamese defence official since US President Barack Obama lifted the embargo in Hanoi last month.
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WNU Editor: The Vietnamese do want to buy American weapon systems .... the problem is that they cannot afford it. Another problem for the Vietnamese is that they are use to Russian weapons, and those ties are very deep .... Ties That Bind: Why US Lifting Arms Ban on Vietnam Could Be Good for Russia (Sputnik). In the meantime, let the speculation begin .... Vietnam’s Restocking: Subs, Ships, Sukhois, and Now Perhaps F-16s and P-3s? (Defense Industry Daily).
2 comments:
By coming in first place in the South East Asia Wargames, Vietnam acquired a lot of US kit, from tanks to jets.
When Vietnam makes it's first US purchases, it will be spare parts and upgrades for the US kit they consider a priority.
BTW, a lot of the purchases will be from Israel, Turkey and other countries, as their upgrades are either better, or cheaper than the US product,
And the key thing that the removal of the Sanctions achieves for Vietnam, is it allows second and third party sales of equiptment with US technology and parts.
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