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China urges EU to 'trash' arms embargo
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-11-04 15:10
China says the EU's 16-year-old arms embargo is having a negative impact on
trade and should be trashed, signaling the issue will be a top priority when
President Hu Jintao visits Europe next week.
In a wide-ranging interview with journalists, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing
reiterated Beijing's opposition to the "discriminatory" ban on China and urged
the European Union (EU) to immediately lift it.
Chinese Foreign
Minister Li Zhaoxing (R) and Premier Wen Jiabao (C) chat with
visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Great Hall of the People
in Beijing in this September 6, 2005 file photo. Li said the EU should
lift the 16-year-old arms ban on China.
[newsphoto] | "All the leaders of the EU that I have come in contact with believe that (the
embargo) is a legacy of the Cold War, is poorly founded and is useless and only
harmful," Li said.
"This should have been thrown into the trash heap of history a long time
ago."
Hu leaves for a tour of Great Britain, Germany and Spain on Tuesday, then
heads to South Korea to attend the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC)
leaders' summit on November 18 and 19.
The arms embargo has been a central issue for every high-level visit between
China and EU countries for years.
France and Germany have urged the lifting of the ban,
but Britain and other EU nations disagree, citing US security concerns in the
Asia Pacific region, especially over Taiwan.
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