@feb17libyaFeb17Libya
China Vows to Toughen Control After Report of Libya Arm Salesbit.ly/nC7f8g #libya
China said it will tighten control over exports of arms following a report that companies offered to sell weapons to Muammar Qaddafi’s regime in violation of United Nations sanctions.
Talks between the companies and Qaddafi’s representatives in Beijing in July took place without the government’s knowledge, Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in Beijing yesterday. The companies were acting on their own, she said at a briefing today, adding that China hoped Libya’s new government would respect its interests and honor existing contracts.
Jiang spoke after comments by Libya’s new leaders yesterday that the North African nation’s relations with China will suffer if the report that Chinese state companies offered to sell Qaddafi $200 million of arms during the rebellion is confirmed.
“If indeed the Chinese government agreed to sell arms to Qaddafi only a month ago, definitely it will affect our relationship with China,” the National Transitional Council’s finance minister, Ali Al Tarhouni, told Al Jazeera television yesterday.
A reporter for Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper said he found Qaddafi-government documents suggesting Chinese companies offered to sell to surface-to-air missiles designed to bring down aircraft, in addition to other weapons and munitions.
