UK sees threat to Taiwan if West does not support Ukraine

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that if Western nations failed to fulfil their promises to support Ukraine’s independence, it would have damaging consequences worldwide, including for Taiwan.

Russian troops are massed near Ukraine’s borders and President Vladimir Putin has launched exercises by strategic nuclear missile forces, but Russia rejects Western concerns that it is poised to invade.

“We do not fully know what President Putin intends, but the omens are grim,” Johnson told a security conference in Munich.

“If Ukraine is endangered, the shock will echo around the world. And those echoes will be heard in east Asia, will be heard in Taiwan,” he added. “People would draw the conclusion that aggression pays, and that might is right.”