Sticking with Ukraine is a 'national interest': Blinken
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Diplomacy just went with the wind: According to the US Secretary, the US goal is to "make sure that Putin’s aggression in Ukraine remains a strategic defeat for Russia."
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
In an interview for Bloomberg on Thursday, US Secretary Antony Blinken revealed the US stance on different corners regarding the war in Ukraine, disclosing the US interest in "sticking with Ukraine."
When Blinken was asked about the US' upcoming steps and its commitment to Ukraine, he answered that the US is committed to Ukraine and will keep moving forward by stressing that the goal is to "make sure that Putin’s aggression in Ukraine remains a strategic defeat for Russia."
He added that "what’s fundamentally motivating us is this strongly held view that we really are at an inflection point, that this is a moment when the post-Cold War era is clearly over, and there is this competition to shape what comes next that’s on."
We’re sticking with Ukraine: Blinken
The US administration is still dedicated to arming Ukraine and applying more pressure to Russia despite the country's high rates of inflation and interest, which all serve to exacerbate the issue of economic uncertainty that the government, businesses, and people are all suffering from.
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Blinken revealed that supporting Ukraine is "vitally important because it’s in the national interest," adding that "if we allow that [Russia's military operation] to go unchecked if we allow that to proceed with impunity, it opens Pandora’s box around the world for would-be aggressors."
"I think in my conversations with members of Congress – Republicans, Democrats, House, Senate – there’s a shared conviction that this is important, it’s necessary, and we’re sticking with Ukraine."
Ditching Russian energy benefits US economy: Blinken
It is important to stress that reducing Europe's reliance on Russian energy could benefit the American economy, but it has a dire impact on Europe.
Blinken revealed that "what we’ve seen over the last nine or so months since the Russian aggression began is remarkable in terms of actually moving Europe away from this dependence on Russian energy that’s built up over decades."
"Europe in general, leading countries in particular, have done more over the space of nine months to break that dependence than anything we’ve seen in years. And we see that in the already dramatically reduced dependence on Russian gas in particular, on Russian oil, and that’s vitally important and it’s going to have a profound strategic impact going forward over the coming years and decades," he said.
The #energy crisis is expected to be further aggravated with winter on the doors, will the #European people bear the consequences of their government’s unconditional support to #Ukraine? pic.twitter.com/c5KHoFHWvk
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) September 25, 2022
When asked about the risks of tightening the energy markets, Blinken was quick to defend the energy crisis by arguing that "the Europeans have taken over the last six or seven months, and particularly over the last few months, including this summer, they’ve done a number of things that are very significant that I think will help keep things in the right place through the course of this winter."
Read next: Economic failure of EU unavoidable: Greece's Varoufakis
While Europe suffers from the energy consequences of sanctioning Russia, he emphasized that "the Europeans have taken very important steps to make sure that they can get through winter in good shape."
In addition, Blinken unintentionally affirmed the US' unsolicited intervention in different parts of the world by stating that "one of the things I think we know from history is that the world doesn’t organize itself. So if the United States is not engaged in working to do a lot of that organizing, one of two things: either someone else is going to do it, and probably not in a way that reflects our interests or values, or no one does it, and then you have a vacuum, and vacuums tend to be filled by bad things before they’re filled by good things."
