UNPO sent an appeal to the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help Europe keep the embargo on arms sales to China.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs communicated to us the following:

The Human Rights situation in China has the full attention of the Dutch government and the Dutch government attaches great importance to upholding the international human rights instruments.

There are still many countries in the EU that remain concerned about human rights in China and they made clear they first want to see substantial progress in this area before the embargo will be lifted. “There remains broad reluctance within the EU to assist the People’s Liberation Army’s modernisation drive”.
If the embargo eventually is lifted the Ministry does not expect that this will lead to a major qualitative or quantitative increase of European exports of weapons and military technology. “The 1998 EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports, which will be fully applicable should the embargo be lifted, contains strict criteria that will be applied by the 25 Member States when assessing licence applications for the exports of military equipment to China.”


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