Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi says Italy favours lifting the EU's 17-year-old ban on arms sales to China.
On a visit to Beijing, Mr Prodi said Italy "leans to lifting the embargo" as soon as possible.
China has described the ban, imposed after the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, as a "relic of the cold war".
[Taiwan] [Italy] [China]
2 comments:
Well Italy is raising this at completely the wrong time. Shroeder and Chirac were the biggest advocates of lifting it in 2005. The former has gone, replaced by Merkel who says she is adamantly against lifting it. Chirac won't even get the party nomination next year - the next French President will be Sarkozy (definitely against lifting the embargo) or Royal (probably against it - wants closer US ties).
Of course Prodi wasn't in power last year, but really he can't get anything done now. He was probably just sucking up to the Chinese, hoping for some scraps for their table. ;)
Raj, that's very good. Thanks for the analysis.
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