What presidential hopeful Ryan Binkley said on Ukraine, NATO, China and developing nations

Ryan Binkley — the Texas pastor seeking to be the Republican Party's presidential candidate — has often focused on domestic concerns in his political message, including at the Iowa State Fair.

But in addition to calls for action on the national debt, health care costs, pathways to legal status for undocumented immigrants and tighter border security, Binkley has spoken recently on the Russia-Ukraine War and U.S. position in NATO.

The Des Moines Register followed up with him on those topics and asked about what his administration's policies would be on other global issues.

Binkley is a first-time political candidate who leads Generational Equity Group — a mergers and acquisitions and business advisory group he co-founded and that's headquartered in Texas — and is the lead pastor of the Create Church in Richardson, Texas, that he co-founded.

More: Ryan Binkley says at Iowa State Fair his campaign is growing and Trump isn't the answer

Ryan Binkley on support for Ukraine: "I think it's a mistake to give unlimited funds."

Binkley told reporters after his Des Moines Register Political Soapbox speech Aug. 12 that "it’s a mistake to give unlimited funds to Ukraine. I think we need to be able to stand with Ukraine, but also start leading the movement now to make NATO pay more and also bring a quick resolution to this war.”

Asked if he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin could negotiate in good faith, Binkley replied, "To end the war, it’s going to take everybody walking away feeling like you know what, there’s some portion of this thing where they can go back to their people and say they were successful. I’ve been involved in over 1,400 mergers and acquisitions of businesses. It’s no different.”

The Register asked Binkley at the fair how realistic he thought the U.S. downsizing its role could be, given the scope of Ukraine's needs and NATO members' smaller defense capacities compared with the U.S.

Binkley said the U.S. and other NATO members should have a dialogue with Putin and Russia. "Let's find out what the big concerns are. He said in the past the reason he did it (invaded Ukraine) was because of NATO's expansion in the last 20, 30 years. And so maybe we can have honest conversations about that. Maybe we can talk about other ways for them to succeed other than taking over more territory — give them reassurances that their border is secure."

President Biden and members of Congress from the Republican and Democrat parties have called Russia's conduct in its war against Ukraine genocide. Biden told reporters last year on a visit in Iowa as he prepared to return to the White House, "It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is trying to wipe out the idea of being Ukrainian."

On whether Russia should be allowed to walk away from the war with something, given its conduct being labeled genocide, Binkley said, "Yeah, I am not gonna address any specifics on that," but he added there are ways for Russia to feel secure in its borders and be presented with a path back into the international community, such as for "sanctions to be removed over time so they can have a pathway of success."

U.S. lacks the finances to do as much work in developing nations as it should, Binkley said, but China's influence should be countered

When it comes to support for developing nations and countering the influence of Russia, China and jihadi militant groups, Binkley said, "We don't have as much money to be charitable as we should."

However, Binkley said it's "the heartbeat of America to share freedom, to share charity, to help in any way we can, help other countries have infrastructure, and this is one of my struggles, because right now, China is taking a lead role in that," loaning money to nations in Africa and Latin America, and Brazil and India.

"I think once we fix ourselves securely here financially, we should be able to do all the more," he said.

Binkley said China and the U.S. can be mutually successful as economic powers but that must be on a level playing field, with fair trade and investment practices and protections for intellectual property.

"And in the meantime, we need to diversify our supply chains," including by building relationships with India, he said.

Binkley's church defines marriage as between a man and woman, but he also said his administration would be able and willing to speak out against laws in nations — many of which are in Africa, such as Uganda, and the Middle East — which criminalize consensual same-sex sexual acts and have punishments that include prison and even death sentences.

He said, "There's many things that people can disagree with, socially, politically and (on) religion, but we need to treat people with fairness and equity."

Phillip Sitter covers suburban growth and development for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. He is on Twitter @pslifeisabeauty.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Presidential candidate Ryan Binkley speaks on Ukraine, China and more