Taiwan’s national security team is “paying great attention” to the detonation of thousands of pagers targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon, the island’s defence minister said, after a Taiwanese firm was linked to the pagers’ production, Reuetrs reports.

Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that they were made by a Budapest-based company which has a licence to use its brand.

Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said the government was closely watching developments. “After the news came out, my understanding is that at present the relevant national security bodies are paying great attention to this,” he said, without elaborating.

Israel, like most countries, does not have formal diplomatic relations with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but the two maintain de facto embassies and have close, though unofficial, ties.

Koo, asked whether Israel had given Taiwan a heads-up about the explosions or whether the two had security or intelligence exchanges, said Taipei did not have that kind of a relationship with the country. Ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang, sitting next to Koo, said the public information from the company was that the pagers were not made by it.