Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of inciting conflict in Asia and referred to Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan as a "thoroughly organised provocation."
Putin also referenced the AUKUS security agreement between Australia, Britain, and the United States as proof of Western efforts to create a NATO-style bloc in the Asia-Pacific area in an address to a security conference in Moscow.
His remarks contributed to a narrative that Moscow is fervently promoting as it strives to defend its invasion of Ukraine and forge new international alliances to thwart what Putin called Western hegemony and neocolonialism.
While Western governments have condemned the invasion as an imperial land grab and united in imposing waves of sanctions on Moscow, Russia is actively courting countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America with the prospect of closer trade ties, arms sales and a vision of a new “multipolar world order”.
Speaker Pelosi’s visit this month to Taiwan, which China claims as its own, was “not just a trip by a single irresponsible politician, but part of a purposeful, conscious U.S. strategy to destabilize and sow chaos in the region and the world”, Putin said.
“We also see that the collective West is seeking to extend its bloc system to the Asia-Pacific region by analogy with NATO in Europe. For this purpose, aggressive military-political alliances are being formed, such as AUKUS and others.”