The bilateral cooperation between Taiwan and Russia has been increasing recently. Visits to Taipei by both the members of the Russian legislature and Oleg Labov, the chairman of the Moscow-Taipei Economic and Cultural Coordination Commission (Moscow-Taipei Commission) within the time span of a month, has greatly promoted the cooperative relationship between the two nations.
Since Russia is currently unwilling to change its diplomatic policy favoring China, the Russian-Taiwan relationship must be confined to economic, financial, humanitarian and cultural cooperation for the time being. Expansion of political contacts through new communication channel remains difficult.
When he received Labov and his wife, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) expressed his hope that military and technological cooperation between Russia nad Taiwan could be strengthened. He also said he wanted to begin direct flights to establish convenient and smooth channels of economic, technological and academic exchanges.
Representatives of the Russian airline accompanying Labov reportedly signed a contract with China Airline to start new flight routes, eliminating the most substantive symbol of the standstill in Russian-Taiwan relations. The Russian airline has maintained that the agreement covered preconditions for executing further new aviation contracts. The Russian government has also indicated that it would welcome new flight routes from Taiwan airlines as well as acknowledging the new administration's constructive and flexible stance.
Chen also pointed out during his talks with Labov that the sale of arms to China by Russia creates a security threat in the Taiwan Strait and Asia-Pacific region as a whole. His hope was that Russia would impose qualitative and quantitative restrictions on arms sales to China. However, Russia did not seem to agree with Chen's statement, indicating that Russia is very concerned about the balance of power within the region and that it does not indiscriminately sell arms to China.
In addition, Russian and foreign military specialists pointed out that Russian arms sold to India are comparatively greater in number and more diverse than those sold to China. Weapons of the same level are typically sold to India before China, and are usually more advanced.
In terms of military cooperation with Taiwan, the Russian government feels it is absolutely impossible. Russia will not change the basis of its exchanges with Taiwan. During Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to China this past July, Russia and China signed a "Beijing Declaration," in which, in addition to a promise to not sell arms to Taiwan, Russia also promised to not maintain any form of official relationship with Taiwan. Therefore, bilateral military, technological, or training cooperation between Russia and Taiwan is incongruent with the bylines of the declaration.
Notwithstanding, Russia and Taiwan hope to begin financial and economic bilateral exchanges.
A breakthrough in Russian-Taiwan relations occurred recently: China Petroleum's first purchase of oil from Russia. By early next year, 600,000 barrels of oil from Sakhalin Energy Company will be shipped to Taiwan. Russia sent a search and rescue team to Taiwan after last year's 921 earthquake. Taiwan donated US$200,000 to the families of the deceased sailors of Russia's Kursk submarine -- an amount 10 times more than China gave. Russian people were grateful. Encounters with Russian officials indicate that they have taken on a much more flexible attitude toward Taiwan -- as long as the appropriate form of cooperation is found, anything is possible, they have indicated. The two sides need to use their creativity in finding an entry point to begin exchanges and dialogues.
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