Taiwan will join the international sanctions against Russia to disconnect the country’s banks from the SWIFT transaction network over the situation in Ukraine, according to media reports.
Taiwan News quoted Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang as saying at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan (the island’s highest lawmaking body) on Tuesday that Taipei would facilitate any decisions taken by different countries regarding transactions of Russian banks within the SWIFT system.
The minister said if the island’s small and medium-sized enterprises were affected as a result of disconnecting a number of Russian banks from the global system, the government would provide the necessary assistance, according to the newspaper.
Last Thursday, Russia launched a special operation in Ukraine, acting in response to calls for help from the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics against the intensifying aggression of Ukrainian troops.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the special operation was targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only, stressing that the civilian population was not in danger.
The U.S. and its European partners responded by imposing sanctions targeting several major Russian banks and high-level Russian government officials, including President Vladimir Putin, and ousting Russia from the SWIFT financial system.
