US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan reflects Washington’s desire to prove its “impunity and display their lawlessness,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday during a news conference with Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
Lavrov connected Pelosi’s visit with the US response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying: “I cannot tell what was their [the Americans’] motivation but there are no doubts that it reflects the very same policy we are talking about with regards to the Ukrainian situation.”
“This is a desire to prove to absolutely everyone [their] impunity and display their lawlessness.”
Lavrov said he did not see any other “reason to create such an irritant literally out of nowhere, fully aware what it means for the People’s Republic of China.”
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Russia considered Pelosi’s visit “a clear provocation in the spirit of the United States’ aggressive policy of an all-out effort to contain the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”
The ministry also called on Washington “to refrain from actions that undermine regional stability and international security and to recognize the new geopolitical reality in which there is no longer any place for American hegemony.”
Some context: China’s refusal to condemn Russia’s war on Ukraine has fueled speculation over its intentions with Taiwan, raising questions about how the world might react should it launch an attack.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on China “to join the united world” and oppose Russia, in a virtual address to the Australian National University.
The President discussed China when answering questions from students. He said China’s “neutrality” toward Russia’s invasion “is better” than if China were to announce its outright support for Russia. But he said he believed “the nation, the people of China will do the prudent choice.” He went on to say it is “important that China wouldn’t help Russia.”