US President Joe Biden said that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping once told him that he was strengthening the Quad alliance in the Indo-Pacific against China. I indicated to Xi Jinping that I was going to pull together the Quad: Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.
He said, You're just doing that to affect us.'' Joe Biden said, No, it's because we're trying to put together those folks who have an opportunity to work together in the Indo-Pacific.''
One of the things that autocrats fear most - and India has its own problems - is the idea that somehow we can work together and contrary to what are essentially dictatorships, which a lot of countries have become, particularly not only China but Russia and many other countries. He said the Philippines was the place where he said.
Joe Biden said when he got elected, Russian President Vladimir Putin thought he would be able to break up NATO. That's what part of his goal was from the very beginning. He said that was part of his objective and I know I've been saying that for eight years.
The irony of all ironies to this. He got exactly what he didn't want. He was looking for further Finlandization of Europe. He got Finland and the President of Finland calling, wanting to see me, wanting to join NATO, and Sweden wanting to join NATO. Joe Biden said that his action is generating exactly the opposite of what he intended.
I'm not suggesting that that makes things easier. He said that the Ukrainian people are incredibly brave, and they are incredibly determined, not just the military that was trained, but the people in the streets.
They are making a lie of Putin's theory that somehow they are Slavic in background and many speak Russian that somehow there would be a welcoming party. He said that the exact opposite happened.