Asia, Arms Deal | featured news

The Defense Secretary Leon Panetta promised on Wednesday to let India buy America's best weapons technology and jointly produce and develop equipment in a bid to increase trade with the world's top arms importer.

In unusual praise for China, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday that Beijing deserved credit for its relatively mild response to Washington's announcement last month of a $5.8 billion arms sale to Taiwan.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman said Monday that Beijing “firmly opposes” the Obama administration’s plans to upgrade Taiwan’s aging fleet of F-16 fighter jets, but the measured tone suggested Chinese leaders may want to avoid sparking a full-scale confrontation with Washington over the issue.

Chinese arms firms offered to sell weapons worth about $200 million to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's beleaguered forces in July, two newspapers reported, compounding pressure on Beijing's brittle ties with the rebels who have ousted him.

Taiwan has effectively dropped a request for U.S. submarines to help shore up the balance of power with political rival China, a military source said on Tuesday, dissolving what could be a new rift in tense Sino-U.S.

China has said it will impose unspecified sanctions on U.S. firms selling weapons to Taiwan in retaliation for the U.S. announcement that it planned to sell $6.4 billion of arms to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province.

China said Saturday it had suspended military exchanges with the United States over Washington's $6.4-billion arms deal with Taiwan, the territory that Beijing claims as its own.