Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Tuesday of stoking tensions in Asia, calling U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan a “carefully planned provocation.” In a speech at a Moscow security conference, Putin also cited the AUKUS security pact between Australia, Britain and the United States as evidence of Western efforts to build a NATO-style bloc in the Asia-Pacific region. His comments were part of a narrative that Moscow is pushing hard as it tries to justify its war in Ukraine and build new global alliances to counter what Putin has called Western hegemony and neo-colonialism. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register While Western governments have condemned the invasion as an imperial land grab and united in imposing waves of sanctions on Moscow, Russia is actively courting countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America with the prospect of closer trade ties, arms sales and a vision of a new “ multipolar world order’. President Pelosi’s visit this month to Taiwan, which China claims as its own, “was not just a trip by a single irresponsible politician, but part of a deliberate, conscious U.S. strategy to destabilize and sow chaos in the region and the world”, Putin. he said. “We also see that the collective West seeks to expand its bloc in the Asia-Pacific region on the analogy of NATO in Europe. To this end, aggressive military-political alliances are being created, such as AUKUS and others.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report from Reuters. Edited by Emelia Sithole-Matarise Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
