Japan, Taiwan supplied tank parts via China to Russia: Report

Japanese and Taiwanese companies supplied tank parts through China to Russia amid sanctions over Ukraine's war, a media report claimed on Friday.

A person allegedly connected with the Belarusian government set up a company in China in 2022 after Russia's war in Ukraine to purchase parts from Japanese and Taiwanese companies to be later supplied to Moscow, Nikkei Asia reported.

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko's government is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to the report, the owner established its company Shenzhen 5G High-Tech Innovation in China's Guangdong province in 2022 and began to procure precision instrument parts for motors, sensors and other equipment needed to make tanks and other weapons.

The company purchased parts made by Metrol, a manufacturer of precision positioning sensors in Tachikawa, Tokyo; Oriental Motor, a Tokyo-based maker of small precision motors; and a leading machine tool maker in Aichi prefecture.

It is said Shenzhen 5G High-Tech Innovation sent the parts to Belarusian arms maker SALEO and the LLC Laboratory of Additive Technologies and later it was sent to Russian tank maker, UralVagonZavod to produce T-72, T-90 and other mainline Russian tanks.

However, Japanese company Metrol and Oriental Motor rejected any direct contact with Russian or Belarusian companies and said they never engaged in direct deals with Shenzhen 5G.

Taiwan's Economy Ministry said that they adopted restrictions on trade with Russia and Belarus in line with the Group of Seven (G-7) nations.

"The scope of our restrictions on the export of high-tech goods to Russia is in line with those of our allies, such as the U.S., EU, the U.K. and Japan," Nikkei reported, quoting an unnamed representative of Taiwan's ministry as saying.

"If, in the future, international allies include LLC on their regulation list, we will ban Taiwanese manufacturers' exports to this company," he said.