A European Union arms embargo clamped on China in 1989 following the Tiananmen crackdown could be lifted in early 2011, Brussels sources told Thursday's edition of France's Le Figaro daily. The lifting of the embargo on all lethal weapons "could happen very quickly," a source close to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told the paper.
An EU diplomat in Brussels refused to confirm the claim, but acknowledged that Ashton recommended as much in a report presented at a December 16-17 summit to the bloc's 27 national leaders.
Ashton's report described the embargo as "a major impediment" to Europe-China security and foreign policy co-operation. "The EU should assess its practical implication and design a way forward," it concluded. Lifting the embargo would nevertheless require unanimity across EU member states.
Spain recently tried to persuade opponents to lift the embargo, and the issue can be expected to come up again in mid-January when EU foreign ministers' hold informal talks in Hungary. "We will look into this," said the diplomat. The issue has re-emerged following talks between China and the EU in Beijing focused on economic and trade co-operation, at which China indicated it would support heavily indebted eurozone economies struggling to raise finance on open markets at affordable interest rates. An EU official insisted there was "nothing of an exchange or negotiation whatsoever" involving the arms embargo, stressing that there "nothing given in exchange for that support."