Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said on Sunday that the threat of Russia taking over Ukraine isn’t a “top foreign policy priority” for his campaign.
“You do not believe that Russia taking over Ukraine would be bad for our national interest?” host Martha Raddatz asked on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I do not think that’s a top foreign policy priority for us. I don’t think it is preferable for Russia to be able to invade a sovereign country that’s its neighbor, but I think the job of the U.S. president is to look after American interests,” Ramaswamy said.
The GOP candidate said he thinks the top military threat is, instead, the Sino-Russian alliance, and argued U.S. aid to Ukraine is pushing Russia toward China.
“I would end this war in return for pulling Putin out of that treaty with China,” Ramaswamy said.
“What I think we need to do is end the Ukraine war on peaceful terms that, yes, do make some major concessions to Russia, including freezing the current lines of control … and also a permanent commitment not to allow Ukraine to enter NATO,” he said. “But in return, Russia has to leave its treaty and its joint military agreement with China. That better advances American interests.”
The conservative entrepreneur, running for president in a growing GOP primary field, has previously called for a “Declaration of Independence” to separate the U.S. from China as Beijing and Moscow appear to be growing closer.