The Republican presidential election debate on Wednesday, the 23rd of August, also featured Vivek Ramaswamy, the US Republican presidential candidate who, if elected, has pledged to recognise the Russian occupation of Ukraine and prevent it from joining NATO, reports Ukrainska Pravda, citing Ramaswamy’s article in The American Conservative.
In the article, Ramaswamy argues that Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine recalls the Republican position that the greatest danger to the US is the rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing and he draws parallels with Richard Nixon’s foreign policy.
By promising to uphold Nixon’s legacy, when he becomes US President, Ramaswamy wants to move away from aggressive rhetoric and oppose a protracted conflict in Ukraine. He stresses that the war in Ukraine is beneficial to China and, as President, he will visit Moscow in 2025 to make peace on terms that are in America’s interests.
With this objective,
Ramaswamy intends to recognize Russian authority over occupied regions, block Ukraine’s NATO candidacy, and urge Russia to exit its military partnership with China.
He says that he will lift sanctions, reintegrating Russia into the global market and positioning Russia as a counterbalance to China’s ambitions in East Asia.
Reuters reports that during the Republican presidential debate, Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, criticised Ramaswamy’s foreign policy stance, saying he lacked experience after he said he was against US involvement in Ukraine.
“He wants to hand Ukraine over to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan, he wants to stop funding Israel,” Haley said, “that’s no way to treat friends.”
On Wednesday, the 23rd of August, the eight contenders for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination fought for voters’ attention in the party’s first debate, which did not feature Republican leader Donald Trump.
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