Ukraine’s G7 allies would support the government in Kyiv “for as long as it takes,” despite Russia’s steps to escalate its war there, leaders of the club of major industrialized nations planned to say in a statement yesterday.
The G7 pledged their “undeterred and steadfast” commitment to helping Ukraine “uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity” during a 90-minute videoconference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that started at about 2pm in Berlin, according to a draft of the leaders’ statement seen by Bloomberg.
“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support and stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the leaders of the US, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Canada and the UK said.
Photo: AFP
They would also vow to “impose further economic costs on Russia” and “to coordinate efforts to meet Ukraine’s urgent requirements for military and defense equipment.”
The G7 leaders conferred one day after Russia launched a series of missile strikes on Kyiv and a dozen other cities that struck key infrastructure targets, as well as civilian sites.
In the statement, the leaders condemned “deliberate Russian escalatory steps” and said the tactics were “putting European and global peace and security at risk.”
They did not provide details of any new steps they would take or weapons they would provide.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday also condemned Russia’s latest missile strikes, saying that the act of aggression could be classified as war crimes under the Rome Statute for being directed against civilians.
This latest “brutal and inhuman” assault on Ukraine once again demonstrates the Russian authoritarian regime’s “illegal military expansion” into another nation’s territory and the “evil nature of its human rights violations,” ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
Taiwan offers its condolences to people in Ukraine who lost family members due to the senseless missile strikes, she said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) wrote on Twitter that Russia’s bombardment of Ukrainian residential areas with missiles was “utterly unacceptable.”
“We strongly condemn the cowardly act of killing innocent civilians. #Taiwan partners with fellow democracies to #StandWithUkraine,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the G7 leaders also said they were “deeply troubled” by what they called the “deliberate damage” last month to the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that transport Russian gas to Germany’s north coast.
Swedish investigators last week said that detonations caused the ruptures, with the evidence pointing to a deliberate act that Germany’s vice chancellor suggested was ordered by the Kremlin.
The incidents sparked fears that Russia could stage surreptitious attacks on vital energy links to trigger price increases as winter approaches.
“We strongly condemn these reckless and irresponsible acts of sabotage,” the G7 leaders said. “Any deliberate disruption of critical infrastructure is unacceptable and will be met with a united and determined response.”
Additional reporting by CNA
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS