US President Barack Obama attends a news conference with Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang at the Presidential Palace Compound in Hanoi, Vietnam, May 23, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

HANOI - President of the United States Barack Obama on Monday announced to lift a decades-long arms embargo on Vietnam.

Obama made the announcement at a press conference co--chaired with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in Vietnam's capital Hanoi during ongoing Obama's visit to the country.

Obama also made it clear that the United States may sell military weapons to Vietnam under a case-by-case basis, when answering questions from media during the conference.

The Vietnamese president, for his part, said that "Vietnam welcomes US decision to completely lift arms embargo on Vietnam."

The US imposed arms embargo on Vietnam in 1984.