Tag: Russia-Ukraine war

Pak Supplying Arms, Ammunition To Kyiv

By LokMarg

Pakistan is entangled in yet another controversy as Islamabad has been found supplying arms and ammunition to Kyiv in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

As per reports, Pakistan is not impartial in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and has been involved in supplying arms and ammunition, made in Pakistan, for the end use of Ukraine. Islamabad is apparently utilising third-country-based defence suppliers and contractors to route these defence sales to Ukraine, reported Europe-based publication Geo-Politik.
Credible inputs suggest that Islamabad-based arms supplier M/s DMI Associates has been in contact with Bulgaria-based firm M/s Defence Industry Group to facilitate the supply of manufactured defence stores to the Ukrainian government.

Separately, a Slovakia-based defence company M/s Chemica had reportedly approached M/s Kestral, a defence supplier of ammunition of Pak Ordinance Factories, on behalf of Ukraine’s Defence Ministry, reported Geo-Politik.

M/s Kestral may be using the conflict to spread its activities in countries adjacent to Ukraine, namely Poland, Romania and Slovakia, as the CEO of Kestral, Liaqat Ali Beg, visited these countries in May and June this year.

In another such development, Kyiv-based Ukrainian company M/s FORMAG was learnt to have approached Pakistan-based M/s Bluelines Cargo Pvt Ltd to ship gloves meant for use by the Ukrainian army.

A recent report published in Riafan, an online Russian web portal, states that Pakistan’s Noor Khan Airbase in Rawalpindi has become a key base for the UK for the transportation of military equipment for the Ukrainian Army.

The evidence of Ukraine using Pakistan-made ammunition comes from no other than ‘Ukraine Weapon Tracker’, a website which tracks the usage/capture of weapons and ammunitions in Ukraine. The website mentions that Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) artillery uses 122 mm high-explosive fragmentation artillery shells made in Pakistan Ordnance Factory, Punjab, reported Geo-Politik.

After making a self-goal in February 2022, when then Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan visited Russia during the onset of the Ukrainian war, this is another incident which puts the country’s image at stake.

Islamabad is now out to make money off the Russia-Ukraine war by supplying much-needed ammunition to Ukraine. The Ukrainian military is reportedly using Pakistan-made artillery against Russian troops.

As per reports, 122 mm HR artillery is being used against Russian troops in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. These ties run deep, reported Geo-Politik.

Pakistan has awarded a contract worth USD 85.6 million for modernizing T-80UD battle tanks to Ukrainian state arms conglomerate UkrOboronProm.

Earlier this year Ukraine also discussed with Pakistan new orders for the supply of 6TD1 and 6TD2 engines. In 2021 alone, Pakistan signed a USD 85.6 million contract to repair its T-80UD fleet in Ukraine, reported Geo-Politik.

Ukraine’s relations with Pakistan are largely about weapons. Over the past few decades, Islamabad has been among the most loyal clients of Ukraine’s arms industry. Last year, Pakistan Army Chief visited Ukraine eyeing to shop “sophisticated” arms.

Pakistan has been keen to enhance defence cooperation with Ukraine on the basis of the transfer of technology and joint ventures in the future, as both sides can benefit from each other’s experience. Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa stated this during his visit to a military test site in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine last year.

He had also witnessed field tests of various weapons and equipment and took a keen interest in the tests and appreciated the performance of all ranks associated with the projects, reported Geo-Politik.

The Pakistan Army Chief said that defence cooperation between both countries has traditionally been an important component of Pak-Ukraine bilateral relations. (ANI)

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Semiconductors At The Heart Of US-China ‘War of Chips’

By LokMarg

Amid the Russia-Ukraine war, the United States has placed its eyes firmly on the semiconductor powerhouse Taiwan which China threatens to seize by force.

Writing for the Times of Israel, Italian political advisor and geopolitical expert Sergio Restelli argued that one of the great battlefields of the Ukraine war and the growing closeness of China-Russia friendship has been the high-tech space that China and Taiwan control.

“At the G20 head of states summit in Rome in October 2021, leaders discussed supply chain resilience. Alarm bells have rung in all global democratic capitals, but especially Washington DC, New Delhi and Paris, about a tomorrow where most modern economic and industrial growth may be hostage to China’s dominance in the semiconductor industry,” said Restelli.

According to him, Israel here sees itself transformed into a key political player where its technological prowess, makes it a leader of the free world. “Intel’s purchase of Israeli Tower Semi-conducter for USD 5.4 billion, is one key example of the Israeli semiconductor industry coming of age.”

The Italian expert highlighted how 2 per cent of the world’s leading-edge semiconductors, circuits just 10 nanometers in size or smaller, are produced in Taiwan. He said the only reason TSMC remains below the radar is that it serves as a foundry focused on the manufacture of silicon wafers.

“It specialises in supplying companies that outsource their production, so-called fab-less semiconductor companies: TSMC chips are built into consumer branded products like an Nvidia graphics processor or a Qualcomm logic chip in a smartphone,” the geopolitical expert explained.

Only last month, US technology firm Nvidia said that the Biden administration has imposed restrictions on the sale of a number of high-tech computer chips to Russia and China as they can be used for military purposes.

“On August 26, 2022, the U.S . government, or USG, informed NVIDIA Corporation, or the Company, that the USG has imposed a new license requirement, effective immediately, for any future export to China (including Hong Kong) and Russia of the Company’s A100 and forthcoming H100 integrated circuits,” the company said in a statement that was published by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company said the license is required to export and support technologies, thereby eliminating the risk that these technologies could be used for military purposes.

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to implement the USD 280 billion CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. This includes more than USD 52 billion in subsidies for US semiconductor manufacturers in an effort to counter China’s growing technological clout.

In a column for Sydney Morning Herald, Stephen Bartholomeusz said the world’s largest maker of artificial intelligence chips has found itself in the front line of a fresh push by the US to frustrate China’s ambition of overtaking the US to become the world’s technology superpower.

Bartholomeusz said the US effort to slow the rate of China’s technological progress goes beyond the investment in domestic manufacturing and R&D and bans on exports by US manufacturers.

“The semiconductor industry is a complex global ecosystem. The US dominates design of advanced chips and the equipment that manufactures and the intellectual property that supports them but the manufacturing is dominated by Taiwan,” he added.

China has opposed the new US chip law that aims to support the local producers of semiconductors. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin had said that the new Chips and Science Act adopted by the US will disrupt global supply chains and hamper international trade.

“The United States stated that the act aims to increase the competitiveness of US technologies and the semiconductor production, however, this act provides huge subsidies to US enterprises producing chips and introduces a differentiated policy of industry support, some provisions of which, among other things,” said Wang at the briefing. (ANI)