China is watching as President Donald Trump pushes for a diplomatic solution to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, Sen. Lindsey Graham told NBC’s Kristen Welker in an interview that aired Sunday.
The stakes?
“If it ends in a way that looks like that Putin’s overly rewarded, there goes Taiwan,” Graham (R-S.C.) said on “Meet the Press.”
Trump’s latest gambit to end the war, now more than six months into his new term, will see him meet with Putin in Alaska this Friday, the first time Russia’s president will set foot in the U.S. in roughly a decade.
It comes after Putin last week presented special envoy Steve Witkoff with a ceasefire offer, and Trump on Friday suggested “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” sides in peace talks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday morning flatly rejected the idea that Kyiv might part with territory in negotiations to stop the fighting.
Graham, who told Welker he hopes “Zelenskyy can be part of the process,” said other elements of peace talks will govern whether a deal makes sense for Ukraine and its partners.
“What would a good deal look like? Making sure that 2022 doesn’t happen again,” he told Welker, referencing the start of the current war. “On Biden’s watch and Obama’s watch, Russia invades. The goal for me, and I think President Trump, is to end it forever. Now, what would that look like? You’ll have some land swaps, but only after you have security guarantees to Ukraine to prevent Russia from doing this again.”
China, a major purchaser of Russian oil, is on the president’s mind, Graham said, just days after the White House announced that tariffs on India would be hiked to 50 percent for its own consumption of oil from Russia.
“I am here to tell you that President Trump will end this war in a way to prevent a third invasion and not to entice China to take Taiwan,” Graham said. “We’re not out to humiliate Putin, we’re out to get a deal to make sure there’s no third invasion.”
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