Companies from the bloc’s major trading partners could face curbs over links with Russia, the paper said

The EU is seeking to include restrictions against Chinese and Indian companies in a 13th sanctions package against Russia over the Ukraine conflict, to be unveiled later this month, the Financial Times has reported.

Two dozen firms, including three from China and one from India, could face trade penalties from Brussels, the paper said in an article on Monday.

Businesses from Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Thailand, Serbia and Kazakhstan are also on the list, it stressed, adding that the companies could not be named due to legal reasons.

If the proposal is approved by all member-states, it would see the EU sanctioning entities from mainland China and India, which are the bloc’s major trading partners, for the first time.

The companies are being targeted for allegedly helping Russia to circumvent restrictions imposed by the EU, especially through the supply of electronic components that can be repurposed for use in drones and other weapons systems, FT cited the plan as saying.

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“It is also appropriate to include on that list [along with more Russian firms] certain other entities in third countries that indirectly support Russia’s military and industrial complex… by trading in such components,” the document reads.

According to the report, European companies would be banned from doing business with the blacklisted foreign firms.

The FT noted that the EU was already considering sanctioning Chinese firms over links with Russia last year, but officials in Brussels said Beijing assured them that it was not supporting Russia’s military effort.

Restrictions on an Indian company “would be especially sensitive as the country is a US ally and is negotiating a trade deal with the EU,” the paper stressed.

Both China and India have been consistently calling for a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Over the past two years, Beijing and New Delhi have resisted Western pressure to join sanctions on Moscow, while instead boosting economic cooperation with Russia, and becoming the main destinations for Russian oil.

READ MORE: Russian trade with ‘friendly’ states booming – minister

In his interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin reiterated that the sanctions deployed by the US and its allies “do not work.”

“The largest number of sanctions in the world which are applied - are applied against Russia. And we have become Europe’s first economy during this time,” Putin stressed.