US Concerned Iran and Others Aiding Russia to Secure Chips
(Bloomberg) -- Russia continues to access foreign chips and technology through intermediaries like Iran, a senior US official responsible for regulating exports said.
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“Russia has turned to other countries, if you can imagine the partners of Iran and North Korea, to fill some gaps in its procurement that are created by our products leaving the Russian market,” US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Thea Kendler told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday. “We know that Russia is using Iranian drones in Ukraine, to kill civilians.”
Group of Seven member states are discussing whether to sanction companies in China, Iran and North Korea they believe are providing Russia with parts and technology that have military purposes, Bloomberg News has reported. The aim is to coordinate a package of measures by Feb. 24 — which marks a year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — according to people familiar with the matter.
China previously hit back at claims some of its state-owned firms may be helping Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying Washington should stop sending weapons if it wants the conflict to end.
Kendler leads Washington’s group responsible for controls on dual-use technology — gear that may be used for both industrial and military aims — and is in Tokyo for an international trade conference and bilateral meetings with partner countries. Her comments focused on preventing Russia from obtaining foreign tech via third parties, though her closed-door meetings with partners in Asia are likely to center on China. The US is “deeply concerned” about economic espionage, she said.
Veldhoven-based ASML Holding NV on Wednesday disclosed a former China-based employee stole its technology data and potentially breached export rules, the latest flashpoint in a growing conflict between the world’s two leading economies. ASML is the go-to supplier of the multimillion-dollar lithography systems required to produce the most advanced chips today. Kendler declined to comment on the incident.
US President Joe Biden’s administration secured an agreement with the Netherlands and Japan to restrict exports of some advanced chipmaking machinery to China, Bloomberg News has reported. The details of the agreement and restrictions, aimed at undercutting Beijing’s military and domestic chipmaking ambitions, have yet to be publicly detailed.
Kendler played a key role in establishing a sweeping set of elevated restrictions on US tech exports to China in October. The measures set to be undertaken by the two allied nations would extend at least some of those US limits to companies like ASML and Tokyo-based Nikon Corp. and Tokyo Electron Ltd.
--With assistance from Isabel Reynolds.
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