Vladimir Putin Vows To Back Xi Jinping Over Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan Visit; Joe Biden Calls on Russia, China To Engage Nuclear Arms Control Talks

Russia has indicated that it is ready to help China as tensions with Taiwan escalate ahead of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's possible visit to the self-ruled island.

On Monday, the Ostankino television tower in Moscow unveiled two big signs that said, "Russia is with you." The statement atop the 540-meter structure was in Chinese and came as Beijing issued increasingly harsh warnings to Washington over its stance on Taiwan.

Russia Expresses Support to China

According to Alexander Gabuev, a senior expert at the Carnegie Moscow think tank, the sign could hardly have been placed on the tower without official authority, implying that the decision came from the Kremlin. Despite not having a formal alliance, China and Russia have the best relations they have had since the late 1950s. Meanwhile, Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin praised their bond as limitless.

As China-US relations look to be fraying, Moscow's engagement - in the form of a show of support for Beijing - would come as no surprise. Pelosi, who began her Asia tour in Singapore on Monday, was scheduled to spend Tuesday night in Taiwan, according to three persons briefed on the subject. The prospective Taiwan portion of the tour, however, is not currently on her public calendar.

Last Wednesday, US President Joe Biden stated he felt the US military thought a Pelosi travel to Taiwan was not a smart idea right now, and Beijing's forthright reaction to the likelihood of the US House Speaker visiting the island suggested Mr. Biden was correct.

If Ms. Pelosi visits Taiwan, it will be a blatant intervention in China's domestic affairs, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, and will result in extremely serious events and repercussions, as per Express.

Biden Offers Russia, China To Discuss Nuclear Arms Control

Meanwhile, Biden has made a rare offer to reach out to Russia to begin talks on a new weapons control framework to replace the START or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which the US signed with the Russian Federation and went into force in 2011. The initial period of the pact was ten years, which expired on February 5, 2021. However, the structure allows both parties to agree to prolong it for up to an extra five years.

According to the US president, there is no value to any of our nations, or the world, in resisting real engagement on arms control and nuclear non-proliferation. As per President Joe Biden, who spoke at the ninth Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review meeting on Monday, the US and Russia must begin talks to extend the treaty through February 4, 2026.

According to Biden, who spoke at the ninth Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review meeting on Monday, the US and Russia must begin talks to extend the treaty through February 4, 2026. He emphasized that the United States joined the Nuclear Weapons States in January 2022 to reinforce its position that a nuclear war cannot and should not be conducted.

The Biden administration has prioritized lowering the role of nuclear weapons in its national security policy, and as a result, the US president has gone out to Moscow to begin discussions, Republic World reported. Moscow and Washington renewed their New START deal, which limits the amount of strategic nuclear warheads they may deploy and the missiles and bombers they can use to deliver them, until 2026 last year.

However, Russia's UN envoy questioned if the US was willing to discuss, accusing Washington of retreating from negotiations with Moscow on strategic stability in the Ukraine war. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the UN conference that Washington was committed to achieving a comprehensive risk reduction package that would include safe communications channels among nuclear-armed nations.

Blinken also stated that a restoration of the 2015 nuclear agreement is the best conclusion for the US, Iran, and the rest of the world, and accused North Korea of planning for a seventh nuclear test. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida encouraged all nuclear powers to act "responsibly." Kishida comes from Hiroshima, which was the first city in the world to be bombed with a nuclear device on Aug. 6, 1945, as per US News.