Kerala: Former Indian Ambassador to the US and an expert on external affairs Dr. T P Sreenivasan has said that the visit of the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan is a clear message from the US to China that it would not allow China to invade and take control of Taiwan. At the same time, he added that China is not taking this visit seriously.
"China's stand is evident as the fighter jets from China encircled Taiwan during Nancy Pelosi's visit. Taiwan could have shot down these flights but they did not do that as they do not want to engage in a war with China," Dr. T P Srinivasan said.
With the visit of Ms. Pelosi, Taiwan is fearing more now about a Chinese attack. If something similar to the Russian invasion of Ukraine happens to Taiwan, they know it would affect them badly. The economic sanctions and threat messages from the US to Russia against Ukraine invasion have not been effective in persuading Russia from attacking Ukraine, he said.
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Srinivasan said that the oil import ban on Russia also failed and the European nations are now purchasing oil directly from Russia. Russia has already taken control of areas that they wanted in Ukraine. This has caused a dent in the image of the US. The Taiwan visit could even be construed as a gimmick to get out of this embarrassment, he said.
China and Russia have reached an agreement before the Ukraine war that China would support Russia in the Ukraine invasion and Russia in turn would support China for the Taiwan invasion. The US has now clearly indicated that if China decides to invade Taiwan, then it would stand with Taiwan, he added.
