This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Batsler. Gordon Chang at Gordon G. Chang, my colleague and

co-host and friend, and we're very privileged to welcome Victoria Coates, the Vice President of the

Heritage Foundation, and a guide for us on what can go wrong and why in Eurasia.

Victoria, since last we spoke, the Trump administration has talked about offering F-35s to Saudi Arabia.

I believe it came up in the most recent visit of the Crown Prince.

The puzzle here is China.

China has made inroads in the Gulf. All the major actors in the

Gulf these last years have traveled to Beijing ceremonially. And F-35 technology is the highest end

and securest end in the Pentagon. There is a headline suggesting that China will steal anything we give to Saudi Arabia,

no matter what the protections are in the Gulf.

Do you share that opinion?

Good evening to you, Victoria.

Well, good evening, John.

Good evening, Gordon.

I think it is certainly a concern, but bear in mind, we have developed export versions of the F-35

for other countries, including Turkey.

And we did wind up canceling the F-35 contract with Turkey when they deployed Russian S-400s in that country

because those two things couldn't mix.

We don't have that problem with the Saudis,

which have largely been armed by the United States historically. So those are mostly our

systems or allied systems that are in Saudi. And through the export version of the F-35,

we can protect, particularly that stealth technology that is, as you say, so sensitive.

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