polls opening up in georgia. why this pivotal election is pitting donald trump against mike pence. and how the former vice president could one up his old boss. plus vladimir putin receives a stinging rebuke from one of his senior diplomats. why a top russian official says he s never been so ashamed of his country. good to have you with us. right now, the second in person summit of the quad is wrapping up in tokyo. leaders of the informal alliance between the u.s., japan, australia and india have been holding talks one on one. u.s. president biden met with indian prime minister. also meeting with the australia new prime minister. one key focus of all these meetings, russia s war on ukraine. russia s assault on ukraine only heightens the importance of those goals. the principles of international order, territorial integrity and sovereignty, international law, human rights. must always be defended regardless of where they re violated in the world. so the quad has a lot of
Front in asia with the united states participation. something that the president will hopes to lead asia with as he departs later today. all right. steven, i want to turn to you of course in beijing to get the latest on china s reaction to president biden s comments. regarding taiwan and of course his clarification. anymore on that? no official response to the clarification just yet. i think china s likely to stick to the usual talking points claiming taiwan is the reddest of the so called red line. even though the ruling communist party has never controlled the island they consider part of chinese territory. that s why they have a lashing out at the remarks monday warning that u.s. not to underestimate 1.4 billion resolve to defend sovereignty. the fiery rhetoric is not now. the questions seem to be whether
One key focus of all these meetings, russia s war on ukraine. russia s assault on ukraine only heightens the importance of those goals. the principles of international order, territorial integrity and sovereignty, international law, human rights. must always be defended regardless of where they re violated in the world. so the quad has a lot of work ahead of us. the summit caps off his trip to asia. and attempt to bolster u.s. alliances in the region and counter china s growing dominance. the visit hasn t been without controversy. the white house is walking back his comments that the u.s. would be willing to defend taiwan militarily if china attacks. mr. biden is clarifying u.s. policy on the issue is unchanged. beijing is pushing back telling the u.s. not to meddle in its internal affairs.
How many of these presidential gaffes if you will would convince the beijing leadership that there is a real u.s. policy shift on taiwan. it has been replaced by clarity. regardless of the backtracking after wards. that then the next question becomes whether the shift would change the thinking or calculation of chinese supreme leader xi jinping. many think instead of deterring him, he may accelerate the planning and preparation because as much as they hate the comparison between taiwan and ukraine, one likely lesson they have taken away from the war seems to be the longer you wait the more difficult it may become to take over taiwan by force. because of the likely improvement in taiwan s defense capabilities with the u.s. getting more serious in helping and preparing the island to fight the war. that is a critical point. what more are you learning about the one on one meeting between
About the president s comments. and i think the president and his team really think that the calculus in all of this changed by russia s invasion in ukraine. that if there s ever a moment to sort of signal to china not to move on taiwan, now the is the time. the quad summit has seen something of a counter to china in this region. and of course the white house says that it s beyond that. the countries have other things they can cooperate on and other shared interests. it s certainly is china that is looming in the backdrop of all of these talks. now the leaders did come out with modest announcements today. they say they re going to work on sharing covid-19 vaccines in particular the pediatric doses. and they announced a maritime information sharing program. certainly it is china that is looming over all of this in this picture of the collective united