On Friday, GOP Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy spoke about his views on Ukraine and Russia during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.
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00:00 Let's keep going.
00:01 Thank you.
00:02 Thank you.
00:03 China is also a factor in our foreign policy.
00:08 In this case, Ukraine, Russia, China, even in their worldwide initiatives, the Belt and
00:15 Road Initiative, they're in their second centenary as they see it.
00:20 So dealing with foreign policy, especially Ukraine and Russia, what would your strategy
00:26 be?
00:27 And again, how?
00:28 What are some of the tools you will use?
00:30 And what is your policy towards Ukraine?
00:32 And I'm going to back into Ukraine via China because the Communist Chinese Party is the
00:38 top threat we face today.
00:40 As the USSR was in the last century, it is Communist China in this century.
00:45 And my strategy there is similar to what Reagan said about the USSR.
00:49 We win, they lose.
00:51 That's how it works with respect to China.
00:53 Now let's come over to Ukraine.
00:55 The USSR doesn't exist anymore.
00:58 And I don't believe that this conflict advances US interests.
01:03 And I worry that we have an establishment in both parties that's not only depleting
01:09 critical stockpiles in this country and spending $200 billion of our own money that could be
01:14 better utilized to protect our own homeland, our own border, instead of somebody else's.
01:20 That's just the beginning of it.
01:22 I worry, and this is not just about Joe Biden.
01:25 This is about other leaders in the Republican Party, people in this presidential race, neocons
01:30 from Nikki Haley to Mike Pence to others who are marching us into potentially World War
01:37 III.
01:38 And I think that that is a dangerous set of steps when we have no clear red lines of what
01:43 Russia's red lines are.
01:44 So my focus as Commander in Chief will be negotiating peace diplomatically in a fair
01:50 and reasonable deal that has our eyes wide open to the facts.
01:55 Is Vladimir Putin a craven dictator?
01:57 Yes, he is.
01:59 But just because Putin is bad does not mean that Ukraine is good.
02:04 This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties, consolidated state media, TV into
02:10 one arm, praising a Nazi in his own ranks and applauding last week, threatening the
02:15 United States that they won't hold their elections unless we fork over more money.
02:18 And there's also just facts.
02:20 We have to contend with.
02:21 We can't close our eyes to the fact that Luhansk and Donetsk, some of the regions that
02:25 are occupied in the Donbas by Russia, they're Russian-speaking regions.
02:30 They don't even see themselves as part of Ukraine.
02:32 They haven't been represented in the Ukrainian parliament for nearly a decade.
02:37 So against that backdrop, are we going to go to war with the major nuclear power over
02:41 this?
02:42 I don't think we should.
02:43 So I'll negotiate a reasonable peace deal that allows Ukraine to come out, yes, with
02:47 its sovereignty intact, make a commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to join NATO.
02:54 But in return, I'm going to have a requirement for Russia.
02:57 They have to exit their military alliance with China.
03:02 The Russia-China military alliance is the single greatest threat that we face today.
03:08 And we have to disband that alliance.
03:11 That will be my requirement in that deal.
03:14 That advances American interests.
03:15 It significantly reduces the risk of World War III, almost to near zero, if we do this
03:21 right.
03:22 And what I worry about right now is that you have Joe Biden in the White House now, but
03:26 a bunch of Republicans, most of this presidential field, that is on the same side of this issue,
03:33 a pro-war establishment that in many cases has vested interests in this country going
03:38 to war, which is sad, but it's the truth.
03:40 And it takes an outsider who isn't captured by those interests to lead us to peace, to
03:45 declare independence from China, to grow this economy at home, protect our own homeland,
03:50 put the interests of Americans first.
03:52 And that's going to be my foreign policy as the next president.