Taiwan to tighten sanctions controls after Zelenskyy remarks on weapons supplies to Russia, President Lai says
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said his country is ready to strengthen enforcement of sanctions compliance following criticism from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the supply of components for Russian weapons via third countries.
He wrote this on the social network X, Censor.NET reports.
He stressed that Taiwan "has long been working with global partners to resolutely support Ukraine through humanitarian assistance and coordinated sanctions."
Taiwan’s president also said he is open to further information sharing with Ukraine to counter sanctions circumvention. According to him, this concerns combating illegal transit and concealed end-use of goods.
"There were young Taiwanese who gave their lives defending freedom in Ukraine. We state clearly: any assistance to the aggressor or violations of international embargoes and export control rules are unacceptable," Lai emphasized.
Later, speaking with journalists, he expressed hope that Ukraine would share information with Taiwan about possible sanctions violations. According to him, Taiwan is ready to tighten controls over goods passing through third countries with concealed final destinations in order to prevent them from reaching Russia.
Background
The statements by Taiwan’s president came against the backdrop of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address at the World Economic Forum in Davos. There, the Ukrainian leader said that Russia would not be able to produce missiles without "critically important components supplied from China, Europe, the United States, and Taiwan."
"This has to be stopped. How can we simply talk about this for years? You see, we have been raising this issue for more than a year now. And it is not being pushed through, unfortunately," Zelenskyy emphasized.
