Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp attends a joint press conference with Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine July 7, 2024. REUTERS/Nina Liashonok/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
AMSTERDAM, Nov 18 (Reuters) – The Netherlands’ foreign minister, whose ministry oversees export restrictions on top computer chip equipment maker ASML
, said on Monday that China-Russia trade was “directly affecting” European security.
NATO views China as a “decisive enabler” of Russia in its war against Ukraine, given that Chinese firms are selling goods that end up as components in Russian weapons, including drones, Caspar Veldkamp said before a meeting with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels.
“I raised this twice with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and I think as Europeans we should all do this, because this is something that China should be realizing: it is directly affecting European security,” Veldkamp said.
In cooperation with the United States, the Dutch government has rolled out a series of progressively tighter export restrictions preventing ASML from shipping its most advanced technology to Chinese chipmakers.
ASML dominates the market for lithography tools, which are essential for making the circuitry of computer chips.
Despite the restrictions, China has still been the largest market for ASML and other top U.S. and Japanese equipment makers over the past year and a half, as Chinese firms expand capacity to make older chips not covered by restrictions, but still adequate for many military purposes.
ASML tool sales to Chinese firms reached a record 2.79 billion euros ($2.94 billion) in the third quarter, though the company forecasts a decline in 2025.
Veldkamp said he would discuss what to do about Chinese support for Russia with other EU foreign ministers on Monday.
“We are discussing anything regarding foreign assistance to Russia in its war in Ukraine, be it Iran, be it North Korea, be it China,” he said.
($1 = 0.9477 euros)
(This story has been corrected to fix the figure to 2.79 billion euros, not 2.87 billion, in paragraph 7)
Sign up here.
Reporting by Toby Sterling Editing by MarkPotter
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab