President William Lai (賴清德) today offered talks with Ukraine aimed at cracking down on sanctions-busting activities after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy name-checked Taiwan as a source of illicit missile components.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Taiwan, a global semiconductor powerhouse, has successively updated export controls to stop high-tech goods being used for military purposes and has joined in wide-ranging Western-led sanctions against Moscow.
Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskiy yesterday said that Russia would not be able to produce missiles without "critical components sourced from China, Europe, the United States, and Taiwan," excerpts published on the Ukrainian president's Web site showed.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Responding on X in English, Lai said 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 said, 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 said.
Lai today told reporters in Taipei that he welcomed Zelenskiy to pass on any information to Taiwan about sanctions-busting activities.
"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 said.
Reuters could not reach the Office of the President of Ukraine for comment outside of office hours.
In November last year, Taiwan said that it was revising export controls to comply with the Wassenaar Arrangement, an international agreement aimed at preventing weapons proliferation, although Taiwan is not a signatory.
While senior Taiwanese officials have spoken directly with some Ukrainian city mayors, there has been no publicly acknowledged direct contact between the two governments.
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 it.
Late last year, a senior Taiwanese military officer told a forum in Poland that if Russia defeats Ukraine it would embolden China in its behavior toward Taiwan and that Taipei hoped Kyiv would emerge victorious.
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