EU to work for lifting China's arms ban

EU leaders were set to declare their "political will" to lift an arms embargo on China but stressed Beijing must respect human rights and regional stability, a draft summit text said yesterday.

The Council of European Union leaders said they were "looking forward to further progress in all areas" of the 25-nation bloc's relationship with China, including on the economic front.

"In this context the European Council reaffirmed the political will to continue to work towards lifting the arms embargo," the draft summit conclusions obtained by AFP said.

At an EU-China summit in The Hague this month, diplomats said a campaign against the embargo was gaining momentum inside the 25-member bloc, 15 years after it was imposed in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Countries like France and Germany agree with China that the ban is "outdated".

But in a sign of disquiet in other EU countries, including Britain and the Nordic states, the EU leaders' summit text also suggested that any lifting of the arms ban would be purely symbolic.

The leaders "underlined that the result of any decision should not be an increase of arms exports from EU member states to China, neither in quantitative nor qualitative terms", the draft said.

The leaders "recalled the importance of the criteria" of a new EU code of conduct on arms exports, "in particular criteria regarding human rights, stability and security in the region and the national security of friendly and allied countries".

They also stressed the importance of the "early adoption" of the revised code of conduct and an accompanying "toolbox" of measures to regulate any arms exports to China.