President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday offered to talk with Ukraine about a crackdown on sanctions-busting arms after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy named Taiwan as a source of illicit missile components.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Taiwan has continued updating export controls to stop high-tech goods from being used for military purposes, and has joined in wide, Western-led sanctions against Moscow.
Zelenskiy said Russia would not be able to produce missiles without “critical components sourced from China, Europe, the United States and Taiwan,” and showed excerpts published on the Ukrainian president’s Web site.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Lai posted a response on X in English, saying that Taiwan has long worked with global partners to “staunchly support Ukraine through humanitarian aid & coordinated sanctions.”
“We welcome further exchanges of information with President @ZelenskyyUa to further clamp down on illegal 3rd country transshipment & concealed end-use,” he said, posting a picture of orchids in the color of Ukraine’s flag.
“There have been young Taiwanese who have sacrificed their lives to defend freedom in Ukraine,” Lai sai, referring to volunteer soldiers who have died fighting against Russia.
“We remain clear: any assistance to the aggressor or violations of int’l embargoes & export control regulations are unacceptable. We pray for peace to be restored to Ukraine soon,” he wrote.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Lai said he welcomed Zelenskiy to pass on any information to Taiwan about sanctions busting.
“We are willing to strengthen controls on goods that are routed through third countries while concealing their final destination, to prevent them from entering Russia and to protect Ukraine,” Lai added.
The Ukrainian Presidential Office could not be reached for comment outside of office hours.
In November last year, the government said that it was revising export controls to comply with the Wassenaar Arrangement, an international agreement which aimed to prevent weapons proliferation, although Taiwan is not an official signatory.
While senior officials have spoken directly with some Ukrainian city mayors, there has been no publicly acknowledged direct contact between the two governments.
Like most countries, Ukraine only has formal diplomatic relations with Beijing, not Taipei.
Taiwan and Ukraine do not have de facto embassies in each other’s capitals, and Taiwanese humanitarian aid to Ukraine has mostly been coordinated by Taiwan’s diplomatic offices in central and eastern Europe.
Taiwan has compared the Russian invasion of Ukraine to China’s military threat against Taiwan.
Late last year, a senior military officer told a forum in Poland that if Russia defeats Ukraine it would embolden China in its behavior toward Taiwan, adding that Taipei hoped Kyiv would emerge victorious.
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