On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) reacted to news that Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping are set to meet next week by saying that the U.S. needs to work to break up the “new axis of evil” relationship between the two nations.

Host Stuart Varney asked, “Xi Jinping, China’s leader, has reportedly agreed to meet, in person, Vladimir Putin next week. Now, that was a report I got earlier this morning. Are they ganging up against us, Congressman?”

Waltz answered, “Well, this is a geopolitical shift, Stu, and this is everything from China replacing all of the energy in oil and gas that Russia has lost in terms of sales to Europe, China’s replaced. China is, I think, buying up a lot of distressed Russian firms, particularly in the critical minerals space to power its future economy. But the most alarming thing [is] these joint exercises. As I just mentioned in space, they have agreements, for, not only in low-earth orbit, but up on the moon. But they also, for the first time, have all three branches of their military, their army, their navy, and their air force working together. And it’s not off in far-off places. It’s in the Sea of Japan, it’s in the South China Sea, it’s places where they can control global shipping. So, this is very alarming. And again, we have to look and think more broadly, geo-strategically, on how to drive wedges in this new relationship, this new axis of evil, frankly, rather than driving them together.”

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