Republican 2024 presidential nominee contender and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said on Friday U.S. foreign policy should focus efforts more on breaking up any military alliances between Russia and China over directly working to defeat Putin and Russia.
When asked on CNN about his past comments on considering allowing Russia to keep parts of Ukraine "as part of a way to solve that conflict," Ramaswamy pushed back, saying his comments had more context.
"You leave out parts of that deal," he said.
"I think that the Biden administration is so stubbornly attached to the idea of getting Xi Jinping to drop Vladimir Putin, what I think we need to be doing is get Vladimir Putin to drop Xi Jinping," he said.
He said, as president "I will visit Moscow, and I will pull Russia out of its military alliance with China. The Russia-China military alliance is the single greatest military threat that we face today."
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When asked if he's supporting an idea that a country is only going to receive U.S. support while they are useful to the United States, Ramaswamy focused on the relationship between China and Taiwan under the framework of a one-China policy.
"That line of reasoning that somehow you're not going to call them an allied nation selectively to push back on my vision of strategic clarity is just a farce and betrays what our current posture is in the first place. What I'm bringing to our foreign policy is honesty that will advance our interests. I'm moving from strategic ambiguity to be strategically very clear, that we will defend Taiwan until we achieve semiconductor independence. I expect that to happen by the end of my first term, by 2028," Ramaswamy said.
He was asked, so "then China can have Taiwan?"
"Not necessarily," Ramaswamy said. "What that really means is that Taiwan, between now and then, can actually spend what it should be spending on national defense. Taiwan spends less than 2 percent of GDP on its military, that is shameful. Taiwan needs to spend over 4 percent of its own GDP."
On Thursday, Ramaswamy gave Tucker Carlson an interview that was released as almost an hour of coverage over a plethora of topics where he said "we are in a 1776 moment," referring to a historic date that signaled a turning point for the United States.
"We are driving Russia further into China's arms," he reiterated. "As we arm Ukraine, further strengthening what I see as the single greatest military threat," he said, referring to China and its increased military capabilities.
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In that interview he also talked about his view on Taiwan and the U.S. dependence on the island for semiconductors.
"We are dependent on a tiny island nation off the southeast coast of China, for our entire modern way of life," he said.
As tensions between China and the U.S. increase amid China's sustained interest in taking back Taiwan, he said "I will not send our sons and daughters to die over somebody else's nationalistic dispute."
Politico placed Ramaswamy in a part of the GOP presidential nominee candidate field being called the long shots. He is a self-funded candidate who political analysts say tend to tire out eventually because of the millions of dollars it takes to run for U.S. president.
Ramaswamy is expected to be a part of the primary debates where he will compete against some of the more traditional members of the Republican party.
He does have the support of some big names. Recently, billionaire entrepreneur and owner of Twitter-turned-X, Elon Musk, called Ramaswamy "a very promising" candidate, responding to the interview he did with Carlson.
