China denies it but its components are vital to Russia’s war machine, said the EU’s special envoy on sanctions enforcement related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine’s state news agency Ukrinform reported on Friday.
David O’Sullivan estimated about 80% of the components that Russia uses in weapons production come via China, and this is the biggest challenge for the EU’s sanctions policy.
O’Sullivan was speaking at the ‘Fair Play’ conference in Kyiv, dedicated to introducing additional sanctions against Russia.
He stated that the subject is a challenging one for EU leaders to discuss with Beijing and that whenever leaders such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, or French President Emmanuel Macron raise the matter, the Chinese leadership claims they have no knowledge of the issue.
O’Sullivan said similar negotiations are also fraught in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and other Southeast Asian countries, where local companies are often subsidiaries of European firms.
He said that none of the European companies, and likely none in the U.S., want to trade in goods that ultimately are used in manufacturing Russian weapons, but that despite of a “no resale to Russia” clause and conduct client checks, it is hard to maintain complete control of the supply chain.
He added that there had been successes, and the policies have slowed supply flows, making them less predictable and more expensive.
The special envoy cited an example of an Indian company that stopped making deliveries to Russia only after being hit with U.S. sanctions.
Despite that, O’Sullivan continues to meet with manufacturers in an attempt to explain that seemingly innocuous products, such as optical readers, integrated circuits, microchips, and flash memory cards, can be used by the Russians in manufacturing weapons.
On Monday, EU members agreed to extend existing sanctions on Russia for another six months.