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Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said after meeting President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy that U.S. President Joe Biden should send
more weapons to Ukraine in addition to the more than $35 billion
of weaponry and military hardware already provided.
A hard line toward China is one of the few policies with
bipartisan support in the deeply divided U.S. Congress.
Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory. Chinese armed
forces conducted exercises, fired missiles over Taiwan and cut
military contacts with Washington after former House of
Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-governed
island in August 2022.
"There can be no backing off of helping Ukraine because if we
fail here, there goes Taiwan," Graham told reporters.
"If you're running for President, as a Republican or Democrat, I
don't know how you can make the argument that we're stronger
against China if we pull the plug on Ukraine - that makes zero
sense. What I want the Chinese to see is that invading a
neighbor is not as easy as it looks."
He continued: "The best way to protect Taiwan and world order is
for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to lose."
In order for a long-anticipated Ukraine counteroffensive to
succeed, its forces need more and better armaments, such as
U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets and longer-range weapons, Graham
said.
"There are weapons that matter and we've been too slow getting
weapons that matter to the Ukrainian military ... my message to
the Biden administration is, I appreciate what you have done.
You need to do more," said Graham.
(Reporting by Sergiy Voloshin, writing by David Ljunggren;
editing by Grant McCool)
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