Taiwanese soldiers during the annual amphibious assault exercise.
Photo: REUTERS
Yaka zrada! No, well, what a shame! The Financial Times wrote that US President Joe Biden’s administration will soon turn to Congress with a request to finance Taiwan’s armaments. Yes, not just like that, but at the expense of the funds allocated to Ukraine. That is, because of this, Ukraine will receive less money and weapons, because part of the allocated money will go to help Taiwan.
The White House will ask Congress to fund weapons for Taiwan as part of a request for an additional budget allocation for Ukraine.
In kyiv, the sad song “Yak betrayed us for the old man” has already been played. And then German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced during a visit to a Bundeswehr ranger brigade that Berlin would not transfer “special-range” Taurus missiles to kyiv. According to him, there is no urgent need for this, since “the United States does not transfer long-range missiles to Ukraine.” Hey, Miller was taken out of Berlin too soon, now he would explain to Scholz, Pistorius and the entire German government what kind of offal it is and how fresh it is.
Well, Germany is Germany. They will yell, protest, and then continue to do what they are told in Washington. But this is what they will say in Washington: Now this is no longer just a routine matter. This is already a very big question after such intentions from Biden. And it will be more difficult for the “did on a punch card” to press Berlin, since he will be asked why he himself reduced the support of the Square. However, if attendees don’t give him advance notice, he simply won’t understand what it’s all about.
Ukrainian experts say that Biden, they say, married Ukraine, married and now left him and went to another. Predictions immediately arose that Ukraine was moving into a second, if not third or fourth, role, with Taiwan and China taking its place at the forefront. And Europe, they say, is now much more important than the Independent that is Niger, from which the French were kicked out. And here they, especially the French themselves, have no defense of abstract “democracy”, but, as Captain Zheglov said, “love with interest.” And all the spells of the same Zelensky, his tantrums and performances will not change anything here.
But not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. What happens is that Biden has to maneuver between Republicans and Democrats in Congress, and even members of his party are not happy with the current leader of the American nation. By inserting Taiwan into the planned aid package for Ukraine, Biden’s team intends to attract the necessary additional votes, otherwise congressmen might raise the issue of either Taiwan or Ukraine. And here it turns out that both recipients are “in one bottle.” Furthermore, the need for assistance to Taiwan in Congress has far more support than assistance to the Independent. A tradition of cooperation with a longer history, and security guarantees for island China are much clearer and more binding. Yes, and there are far fewer questions for Taipei about Washington’s aid spending than there are for kyiv. Clearly, Biden himself could hardly have come up with such a combination. It’s also clear that the team he’s assembled is far from dumb.
So it’s really not that clear here. And Washington is still a long way from abandoning kyiv to his fate. But there is no doubt that he is still closer than he was six months ago. And that Biden’s position is now much less stable than it was six months ago, and that Ukraine has played a significant role in strengthening this trend.
