Le ministre de la Défense Phung Quang Thanh reçoit le ministre japonais de la Défense, Itsunori Onodera. Photo VNA

16/09/2013 vietnamplus.vn

La visite d'amitié officielle du ministre japonais de la Défense, Itsunori Onodera contribue à approfondir le partenariat stratégique entre le Vietnam et le Japon, et plus particulièrement entre leurs ministères de la Défense, a affirmé le ministre de la Défense Phung Quang Thanh.

Lors de son entretien lundi à Hanoi avec son homologue japonais, le ministre Phung Quang Thanh s'est déclaré convaincu que cette visite marquerait un jalon important dans les relations de coopération dans la défense entre le Vietnam et le Japon.

Il a demandé au Japon d'aider le Vietnam dans le règlement des conséquences causées par les bombes et mines, les engins explosifs comme les produits chimiques laissés par la guerre.

Le ministre Itsunori Onodera a indiqué que dans l'esprit du mémorandum sur la coopération bilatérale dans la défense, signé entre les ministres de la Défense vietnamien et japonais, la coopération entre les deux pays en la matière s'est développée vigoureusement.

Les deux ministres ont également discuté des politiques de défense de chaque pays, de la coopération bilatérale et des orientations pour le futur. Les deux ministères de la Défense continueront d'augmenter l'échange de délégations, de maintenir et de valoriser le mécanisme de dialogue sur la politique de défense au niveau de vice-ministre et d'officier, de renforcer la coopération dans la formation de cadres...

Pendant son séjour au Vietnam, le ministre Itsunori Onodera va visiter l'Ecole des officiers commandos et le commandement de la 4e zone militaire de la Marine. -VNA

11 septembre Par Edouard Pflimlin, chercheur associé à l’IRIS

Le ministère de la Défense japonais a réclamé le 30 août dernier une hausse de son budget à quelque 4 890 milliards de yens (soit 49,9 milliards de dollars ou 37 milliards d’euros), pour l’exercice d’avril 2014 à mars 2015, soit une hausse de 2,9 % par rapport au budget initial de l’année en cours. « La hausse est la plus forte depuis l’année budgétaire 1992-1993, quand le budget du ministère avait progressé de 3,8 %. Le budget de la défense a baissé pendant 10 ans de suite jusqu’à l’année budgétaire 2012 », remarque le fameux think tank Jane’s(1).

Les hauts fonctionnaires du ministère de la défense ont déclaré avoir besoin de ces fonds supplémentaires, entre autres pour créer une nouvelle unité de type Marines américains, souligne l’AFP(2). Elle aurait pour objectif de protéger les îles dites du "sud-ouest" ou de les reprendre à un éventuel envahisseur étranger. Ce chapelet d’îlots s’étire de l’île d’Okinawa (extrême sud de l’Archipel nippon) quasiment jusqu’à Taïwan, à la limite de la mer de Chine orientale et de l’Océan Pacifique. Il comprend les îles Senkaku, un archipel inhabité administré par le Japon mais revendiqué avec force par la Chine sous le nom de Diaoyu, ainsi que par Taïwan. Pékin envoie régulièrement des navires gouvernementaux dans les eaux territoriales de ces îles stratégiques pour l’accès de la marine de guerre chinoise à la haute mer depuis que Tokyo en a nationalisé une partie en septembre 2012.

Suite de l’article

Sep. 9, 2013 – Defense News (AFP)

TOKYO — Japan scrambled fighter jets Monday after an unidentified drone flew near Tokyo-controlled islands at the center of a bitter dispute with China, a defense ministry spokesman said.

It was the first reported incident of its kind.

Japan’s Air Self-Defence Force sent an unspecified number of jets to the area, the official said.

The drones did not enter Japanese airspace, the official said.

A second Japanese defense ministry official said the nationality of the drone was not clear, but added that it came from the northwest and and was last seen flying back in that direction.

China does have drones but when asked about the incident, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: “I am not aware of the situation.”

On Sunday, Japan scrambled fighter jets against two Chinese bombers that flew from the East China Sea into the Pacific, through a gap between islands in the Okinawa chain, the defense ministry said.

And two weeks ago, fighters were dispatched to head off a Chinese government plane flying towards the Senkaku islands, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus and claims as its own.

A Y-12 propeller plane flew about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from airspace around the islands on Aug. 26, before heading back towards China after Japan’s military planes became airborne.

In December, a similar plane from China’s State Oceanic Administration breached airspace over the disputed islands, prompting the launch of Japanese F-15s.

It was the first known incursion by a Chinese plane into Japanese airspace, the government said at the time.

Friday’s reports came as four Chinese coastguard ships sailed in the so-called contiguous zone that surrounds territorial waters around the islands.

It was the latest in a series of such sorties by Chinese government ships since Tokyo nationalized three islands in the chain last September, reigniting a long-simmering dispute.

Aug. 30, 2013 – Defense News (AFP)

Eyeing Marines-like Force, More US Cooperation

TOKYO — Japan’s defense ministry is looking for its biggest budget hike in two decades, partly to create a Marines-like force, it revealed Friday, as neighbors fret about Tokyo’s rising assertiveness.

Military bosses want more than 4.8 trillion yen (US $49 billion) — three percent up on last year — with much of their focus on safeguarding remote islands as a sovereignty row with China refuses to fade.

The move mirrors Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy of a more assertive diplomacy and a more active military.

Tokyo and Beijing have repeatedly butted heads over the ownership of the Tokyo-controlled islands called the Senkakus, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus, with official Chinese ships and aircraft regularly testing Japanese forces.

Abe has long voiced worries over defense at a time when China is increasing its naval activities in waters around Japan, and as unpredictable North Korea continues its missile and nuclear programs.

He has also called for a stronger military alliance with the United States, which is in the process of a rebalancing of its forces under President Barack Obama’s so-called “pivot” to Asia.

China and South Korea — victims of Japan’s military misadventures in the first half of the 20th century — have expressed unease in recent months about noises in Tokyo toward bolstering its military.

The budget request for fiscal 2014, which will begin in April, represents a three-percent spending increase, making a second-straight annual increase after a 0.8-percent rise in the initial budget for the current fiscal year to March 2014.

If approved, it would mark the largest rise since fiscal 1992.

Under the request, the ministry plans to create a special amphibious unit designed to protect the southern islands and to take them back in case of enemy invasion.

It would spend 1.3 billion yen to buy two amphibious assault vehicles and increase participation in US-led training programs with the US Marines.

The Marines are generally regarded as an offensive force, while Japan’s constitution bars it from taking hostile acts and limits the role of its already well-equipped armed forces to that of defense.

The air defense force would create a new early-warning unit in the southern region with radar-capable planes.

The ministry will conduct a full study on future purchases of Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft that can takeoff vertically like helicopters.

Among big ticket items, the navy wants to buy a 73.3 billion yen destroyer, a 51.3 billion yen submarine, and a 50.8 billion yen submarine rescue ship.

The ministry also wants to have a battery of PAC-3 surface-to-air anti-ballistic missile systems permanently located at its Tokyo headquarters. The system was deployed when North Korea conducted what is largely viewed as ballistic missile tests.

The ministry wants 24 billion yen for programs related to cyber defense.

Some 3.7 billion yen would go toward studies of technologies to detect and track stealth jets.

Although the shopping list appears quite extensive, the vast bulk of the increased budget request accounts for personnel costs, with the expected expiration of a multi-year salary freeze for civil servants.

The freeze was implemented to pay for the reconstruction of the region hit by the 2011 tsunami-earthquake disasters that prompted the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The increased request also came as a result of foreign exchange fluctuations, with a lower yen boosting the prices of foreign-made military equipment.

The request might also change, as it currently does not account for an expected increase of the consumption tax.

Abe is yet to announce whether he will go ahead with the tax hike from the current five percent to eight percent from April.

Aug. 26, 2013 By HARUMI OZAWA – Defense News

TOKYO — Japan could be a key participant if conflict breaks out in Asia, the defense minister said Monday, warning China is seeking to exploit difficulties between allies.

The comments by Itsuno Onodera, who said Japan needs new equipment and must reconfigure its defense, come as Tokyo is embroiled in an ongoing spat with Beijing over disputed territory that has sparked warnings of a possible armed skirmish.

“The crisis that Japan faces now may lead to situations in which the country may have to be involved as a main player,” Onodera told a symposium in the capital.

“Before, it was expected that Japan would only be part of a group (involved in any confrontation),” he said, in apparent reference to the US-Japan security alliance.

“Or that a conflict might occur only in areas surrounding the country,” he said.

“Japan’s defense has been designed for that scenario.

“But Japan (now) needs to have a good defense to protect the country, which can mean equipment, new aircraft, defense systems or cyber protection.”

Onodera said Tokyo needed to be wary of China’s maritime expansion in the South and East China Sea.

“China has made more and more advancement into the seas,” he said.

“When it did not have as much military capability, China tried to promote dialogue and economic cooperation, setting territorial rows aside.

“But when it sees a chance, any daylight between a nation and its ally, it makes blunt advancements. This is what is happening and what we should learn from the situation in Southeast Asia.”

Onodera’s speech came as he readied to head to Brunei to participate in the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+) starting Wednesday.

The group gathers defense ministers from Southeast Asian nations and eight other regional powers — Japan, China, South Korea, the US, Russia, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Onodera said he will “repeatedly explain Japan’s position to his Asian counterparts” and that Tokyo’s motives were entirely defensive.

Hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this year boosted Japan’s defense budget for the first time in more than a decade against the backdrop of growing concerns among many countries in the region about China.

But any move to strengthen military capabilities rouses hostility and suspicion in the region, much of which labored under the brutal yoke of Japanese occupation until the end of World War II.

Since coming to power in December, Abe has repeatedly made noises about altering Japan’s pacifist constitution, which bars the country from offensive action.

The defense ministry last month published a paper saying Japan needed amphibious units and surveillance drones to protect its outlying islands.

Japan’s moves come against a backdrop of increasing Chinese activity in waters far from its mainland coast.

The two countries have spent the last year involved in a dispute over the sovereignty of the Japanese-administered Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus.

Vessels and planes from both sides have played cat and mouse in their seas, with some observers warning a slip from either nation could provoke a military confrontation, with possibly wide-ranging ramifications.

On Monday, Tokyo scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese government plane approached airspace Japan claims as it own

22/08/2013 - JDD

Deux bombardiers russes sont brièvement entrés jeudi dans l'espace aérien japonais, a annoncé le ministère de la Défense du Japon qui a fait décoller des chasseurs. D'après un porte-parole du ministère, ces deux avions TU-95 sont entrés dans l'espace aérien japonais près de l'île d'Okinoshima, au large de Fukuoka, dans le sud-ouest, pendant deux minutes peu après midi heure locale. "Quatre chasseurs F-2 des forces aériennes d'auto-défense (le nom de l'aviation japonaise, ndlr) ont décollé pour leur faire face", a expliqué ce responsable.

Suite de l’article

Jul. 25, 2013 – Defense News (AFP)

TOKYO, JAPAN — Japan should acquire amphibious units like the US Marines and surveillance drones, newspapers on Thursday reported a government paper will say this week, as a territorial dispute with China rumbles on.

The interim report, to be issued as early as Friday by the Defense Ministry, will also promote “the need to boost a comprehensive capability of containment” as part of anti-ballistic missile measures against North Korea, reports said.

The phraseology falls short of any mention of “pre-emptive strike capability” but reflects an ongoing debate in Japan’s defense community about the need to reinterpret aspects of the pacifist country’s military stance.

Nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said Japan needs to discuss the idea of having some kind of first strike provision if it is to effectively counter threats from North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

However, observers say he must tread carefully. Japan’s constitutionally prescribed pacifism enjoys wide support in the country at large and is particularly cherished by Abe’s coalition partners, a centrist Buddhist party.

The Asahi and Yomiuri, influential papers on the left and the right, respectively, say the interim report advocates a US Marines-like amphibious force, capable of conducting landing operations on remote islands.

It also suggests looking at the introduction of a drone reconnaissance fleet that could be used to monitor Japan’s far-flung territory.

The report will be reflected in Japan’s long-term defense outline that is expected to be published toward the end of this year, a defense ministry spokesman told AFP, adding that a committee comprising top defense officials has been engaged in discussion on these subjects for several months.

China has become increasingly active in the seas surrounding Japan, including waters near the Tokyo-administered Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyu islands.

The row over their ownership, which began decades ago, erupted last September when Japan nationalized three of the islands. It took another turn Wednesday when possibly armed Chinese coastguard vessels sailed through nearby waters for the first time.

Later in the day, Tokyo scrambled fighters to shadow a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft that flew in international airspace in between two Okinawan islands.

It was the first time Beijing had sent a military plane through the gap and out to the Pacific Ocean, Tokyo officials said, adding they saw it as a sign of “China’s ever-growing maritime advance.”

Abe’s administration decided to review the current long-term defense outline, which was drafted by the now-opposition Democratic Party of Japan in 2010.

The hawkish premier this year boosted Japan’s defense budget for the first time in more than a decade against the backdrop of growing concerns about China among many countries in the region

23 July 2013 Ministry of Defence

Three Japanese warships have arrived in Portsmouth for a 4-day visit to help forge closer links with the Royal Navy.

The cadets’ stay in Portsmouth includes visiting the Royal Navy’s marine and air engineering facilities at HMS Sultan in Gosport, and experiencing operations room and bridge simulators at HMS Collingwood in Fareham.

Naval history is also on their itinerary, with visits to the Naval Historical Branch at the naval base and Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Commander Jeff Short, who has helped to arrange the visit, said:

The Royal Navy has a lot in common with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force. We have engaged as maritime nations since 1613 and exchanged students for the last 150 years.

More recently, we have worked together on counter-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean and we share common equipment such as the Merlin helicopter.

While we may be separated by geography, we are joined by the sea and, just as importantly, by our similar ethos and doctrine. This visit is eagerly anticipated by the Royal Navy and the interaction of the Japanese cadets with our young officers at Sultan and Collingwood will be one of many highlights.

Rear Admiral Fumiyuki Kitagawa, who is embarked on JDS Kashima, said:

Japan and Great Britain have a history going back hundreds of years. The Royal Navy was the model for the foundation of the Japanese Navy so we are very pleased to be here. One of our first priorities is to absorb a bit of history by going around HMS Victory and the capital, London.

The public can also get involved with the visit by climbing on board JDS Isoyuki when she opens up her gangway free of charge to visitors on Wednesday 24 July between 10am and 4pm. And the squadron’s embarked 40-strong military band will be performing the same day next to HMS Victory between 12:30pm and 1:30pm.

The squadron – which last visited Portsmouth in 2008 – departs at 9am on Thursday 25 July.

10 July 2013 Steve Herman - VOA

TOKYO — China and South Korea are criticizing the latest defense report released by Japan.

As the annual security white paper was released Tuesday, Japan's defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, took note of what the government considers increasingly serious security threats from China.

The Japanese defense minister says the Chinese “have attempted to change the status quo by force in ways incompatible with the existing order of international law and in ways that could be seen as provocative.”

Japan and China have a long-standing dispute over small islands in the East China Sea controlled by Tokyo. Tension has escalated since the central Japanese government, last September, purchased the unoccupied islands (known as Senkaku in Japanese and Daoiyu in Chinese) from their private Japanese owner.

Within hours of the issuance of the Japanese white paper, the foreign ministry spokesperson in Beijing responded by accusing Tokyo of making unfounded accusations against China.

Hua Chunying says China's maritime activities are carried out according to international law, the country is on the path of peaceful development and always stands for resolving territorial disputes through dialogue. But, she says, Japan has recently “played up the China threat, causing tensions and confrontation. And the international community cannot help but worry over where Japan is heading.”

The white paper also suggests Japanese forces should have the capability to attack enemy bases as an effective deterrent against ballistic missile threats.

That is in response to North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs, as indicated by defense minister Onodera.

However, South Korea - also a potential target of the rival North's forces - is joining China in criticizing the Japanese document. That is because the annual paper - as it has since 2005 - asserts a territorial claim over a rocky outcrop, covering less than one-fifth of a square kilometer, held by South Korea (known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese).

South Korean army Colonel Wi Yong-seop, speaking for the country's defense ministry, denies Japan has any geographical, historical or legal right to the rocks.

Colonel Wi says if Japan refuses to withdraw its territorial claim there can be no expectations of defense exchanges or military cooperation between the two neighbors.

This is the first such report published since Shinzo Abe returned as Japan's prime minister. He has expressed a desire to alter his country's pacifist Constitution, drafted by U.S. military occupation forces shortly after Japan's defeat in 1945.

That makes some of Japan's neighbors uneasy, believing it could lead to a revival of Japanese militarism. There is a widespread perception in the region that Japan has never sufficiently expressed remorse for its brutal colonization of the Far East and much of the Asian continent before and during the Pacific War.

Japan, for the first time in eleven years, this year increased its defense budget and is drafting a new overall defense plan. It is also increasing the scope of defense drills with its primary ally, the United States, which maintains more than a dozen military bases and tens of thousands of uniformed personnel in Japan.

DEFENSE OF JAPAN 2013      (Provisional Translation)
 

TOKYO, 27 juin 2013 marine-oceans.com (AFP)

Trois navires de surveillance chinois sont entrés jeudi dans les eaux territoriales d'îles disputées avec le Japon en mer de Chine orientale, ont indiqué les garde-côtes nippons.

Ces bateaux ont pénétré tôt le matin dans la zone de 12 milles marins (un peu plus de 22 km) entourant Uotsurijima, une des îles de l'archipel inhabité des Senkaku, revendiqué par Pékin sous le nom Diaoyu.

Ils ont vogué environ trois heures dans cette zone et l'ont quittée plus de cinq heures après leur incursion, ont précisé les garde-côtes.

La querelle territoriale au sujet des Senkaku/Diaoyu remonte à quatre décennies, mais la Chine envoie plus régulièrement des navires (ou parfois des avions) dans les environs depuis que l'Etat nippon a nationalisé en septembre 2012 trois des cinq îles de l'archipel Senkaku en les achetant à leur propriétaire privé japonais.

Cette décision avait déclenché une semaine de manifestations anti-japonaises, parfois violentes, dans de nombreuses villes de Chine. Pékin avait même annulé à l'automne, les festivités qui devaient marquer le 40ème anniversaire de la normalisation des relations entre les deux pays.

Depuis lors, les relations entre les deux pays sont au plus bas.

En avril dernier, le Premier ministre japonais Shinzo Abe a prévenu que Tokyo repousserait "par la force" tout éventuel débarquement chinois sur les Senkaku.

June 11, 2013 Spacewar.com (AFP)

Tokyo - Japan and the United States have started a joint drill to practise retaking remote islands, the Japanese government said Tuesday, as Tokyo and Beijing continue to face off over a disputed archipelago.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who has previously stressed "Dawn Blitz" was not aimed at China, told reporters that the joint exercise was designed to "significantly contribute to our capability".

It is the first time all the three arms of Japan's Self Defense Forces -- army, navy and airforce -- have taken part together in a drill based on the US mainland.

Of some 1,000 Japanese personnel participating in the multi-national amphibious exercise, the bulk are naval troops from three destroyers of the Maritime Self Defense Force, according to Japanese media.

Canada, New Zealand and military observers from seven other nations are also taking part in the US-led exercise in California, which will last until June 28 according to the US Marine Corps. Japan's participation lasts until June 26.

The exercise comes as Beijing and Tokyo remain at loggerheads over the ownership of Tokyo-administered islands in the East China Sea, with frequent confrontations between official ships from the two sides.

The United States has repeatedly said it did not take a position on the sovereignty of the Senkaku islands, which China calls the Diaoyus, but has said they are covered by a mutual defence treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, seen as a hardliner against China, has stepped up defence spending by the world's third largest economy and taken an uncompromising stance on the islands.

03/06/2013 vietnamplus.vn

Le général Vo Van Tuân, chef d'état-major adjoint de l'Armée populaire du Vietnam, a reçu lundi le directeur de l'Institut national des études de la défense du ministère japonais de la Défense, Nobushige Takamizawa, en visite de travail au Vietnam.

Les deux parties ont passé en revue les bonnes relations traditionnelles entre Vietnam et Japon ces 40 dernières années, et affirmé le bon développement de la coopération bilatérale dans la défense ces derniers temps.

Elles ont souhaité dynaminer les relations de coopération dans la défense, renforcer les échanges de missions pour échanger des expériences, coopérer dans la formation de cadres et dans d'autres domaines d'intérêt commun. -VNA

Jun 3, 2013 by Kyle Mizokami - Japan Security Watch.

For more than forty years, as part of an alliance with the United States, Japan was allowed access to some of the very best fighters in the world. A string of American fighters, starting with the F-86 Sabre, then the F-104 Starfighter, F-4 Phantom and finally the F-15 provided the mainstay of the Air Self Defense Forces. Offering Japan first-rate fighters only nine years after World War II may sound odd, but America was convinced that postwar Japan was a vital strategic ally. The doors of the Arsenal of Democracy swung open wide and Japan (and America) benefitted enormously.

Of course, Japan didn’t realize that, forty years later, those doors would close a little bit and the F-15 would be the final first rank fighter it would have access to. In 1998, the so-called “Obey Amendment” to the U.S. defense budget prohibited the U.S. from exporting the F-22 Raptor abroad. Although practically nobody comes out and says it, the Obey Amendment is likely the result of transfers of U.S. technology from Israel to the People’s Republic of China, which resulted in aircraft such as the J-10. Realistically the likelihood of an arms transfer ban specifically targeting Israel is exactly zero, and as a result the F-22 was banned from export to any country, no matter how loyal to the United States.

Since the passage of the act the official line has been that the F-35 is the American fighter reserved for Japan. Various efforts, some led by members of Congress have tried to overturn the F-22 ban, but those have run into the reality that nobody could promise that F-22 technology would ever be leaked again…especially by a certain country. So the F-22 remained the sole ward of the United States Air Force, and when the production line ended, the tooling was put into storage in the unlikely event the aircraft would be resurrected.

Now, imagine you’re Japan. You’ve enjoyed cozy relationship with the American Military-Industrial Complex for decades, getting the very best fighters, and even the right to produce those fighters, under license, in Japan. You’ve held up your end of the bargain, and you expect the relationship to continue. You limit your own fighter production program to licensed builds, not bothering to develop indigenous designs. Why should you?

Along comes the Obey Amendment…and you’re screwed. You have an aging fleet of F-4EJ Phantom fighters you expected to replace with F-22s, and that’s not going to happen. America instead offers you the F-35 Lightning II, a multi-role fighter over budget, behind schedule, and worst of all, it doesn’t suit your requirements. You wanted a two engine air superiority fighter ? You can’t have it. Why? Because you can’t be trusted with the technology. Why now? Because we said so.

If you were Japan, would that not make you more than a little uneasy about your access to future weapons systems? Especially with China breathing down your neck?

The answer is yes, that is making Japan very  uneasy. And it is taking steps. Consider this article that came out just today.

Japan, France to start talks to jointly develop military equipment

SINGAPORE–Despite Japanese objections to France’s military equipment sales to China and Russia, Japan has agreed to hold official talks on joint weapons development with France.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on June 2 met with his French counterpart on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit here. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian showed a strong interest in Japanese weapons-related technology, and proposed that the two nations jointly develop military weapons and equipment.

Onodera and Le Drian agreed that Japan and France will begin talks aimed at hammering out an agreement to carry out joint arms development, beginning with the bilateral summit scheduled for June 7 in Tokyo.

“I think there is no difference with France in our thinking on this,” Onodera told reporters after the meeting with Le Drian, showing his support for joint arms development efforts.

(Asahi Shimbun, June 3rd, 2013. Link)

A little more than a year ago, Japan signed a similar deal with the U.K.

Japan, U.K. agree on arms development

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and British leader David Cameron agreed Tuesday in Tokyo to strengthen bilateral defense cooperation, including joint weapons development, in what will be the first such case since Japan eased its de facto ban on arms exports.