check policy with no clear, strategic objective identified, and i don t think it s in our interest to getting into a proxy war with china getting involved over things like the border lands or over crimea. i don t think we need to write them blank checks, but they have the passion to fight for their own freedom. give them the ammunition to do it. there can be no room in the leadership of the republican party for apologists for putin. needless to say there will be a robust debate on the presidential debate stage there. but joining me now is dan sullivan, republican from alaska and also a colonel in the marine corps reserve and the only senator who currently serves in the military. welcome back to meet the press . good morning, chuck. good to be on the show. let me start with the basics. you heard from the national security adviser there. what does what do you think victory looks like for ukraine?
well, you know, i think just to begin with, looking at the past year, we need to recognize how we got here, what mistakes were made, and what we can do going forward. i think one element that the national security adviser doesn t talk about, i think it was clearly some of the biden administration s weakness on the issues like energy, national defense, and clearly the botched withdrawal from afghanistan that emboldened putin to undertake the brutal invasion of ukraine. i think, though, now that we are in this battle, it s strongly in our interest to continue to support ukrainians to restore the territorial integrity and their sovereignty without committing u.s. forces. but, you know, chuck, your interview actually highlighted one of the problems. jake sullivan said, well, we re not going to do f-16s today, not
well, we believe that this is better done directly with chinese counterparts in private and, in fact, secretary blinken had the opportunity to meet with china s top diplomat at the munich security conference just a few days ago. so we have channels to be able to make sure that china fully understands the u.s. position and what would happen were they to move forward with this step and we don t see as much profit in microphone diplomacy on this. i understand. do you have western allies onboard with the immediate response that you want to do with china, or is that going to be a slog? we ve actually had intense and very positive consultations with our nato allies, with other members of the coalition supporting ukraine, and, in fact, chuck, they re taking steps themselves to communicate to beijing.
powers can do both things, but it is important to address our own border, to secure the border. that would take away one of the arguments and something else, and i hear from alaskans on this. we need to do a better job, the administration needs to do a better job of getting our european allies to put their weight. as you know, chuck, they ve had a commitment to spend at a minimum, and it should be a floor and not a ceiling, 2% of the gdp, and the vast majority don t do that. and i think that frustrates americans where we see this huge conflict in the heart of europe and the europeans aren t stepping up enough the way in which they need to, and i think pressing them to do more and having them do more can help push back against some of the doubts that are starting to spread across the country on ukrainian support. what do you think the best way is to deter china from helping the russians right now and what should the consequences be?
look, they re already helping the russians. i mean, every time you hear the chinese officials talk about this, they re blaming us, they re blaming nato for the ukrainian war. i agree there should be a serious redline with regard to them supplying military equipment to the russians, and i believe that should be in the form of sanctions. but, you know, there is a broader issue here, chuck, and this is another one where republicans are actually more united, and the war in ukraine really revealed that we are in this new era of authoritarian aggression led by xi jinping and putin. as you know, they re working together, and they re increasingly isolated. they view their democratic neighbors in a very paranoid way, and i think that this challenge where they are looking to take aggressive actions against their neighbors, whether it s in ukraine, whether it s in