A London investment chief in Bermuda this week criticised US president Joe Biden for what some have described as careless remarks during an interview on the CBS television news show 60 Minutes, aired on Sunday night.

The US president, in an unscripted off-the-cuff remark, sent out shock waves when he said the US would defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack.

He then seemed to double down on the point when he answered “Yes” to a follow-up question as to if he actually meant deploying US forces.

The Chinese foreign ministry immediately lodged formal complaints at what some in the US put down as a presidential gaffe. It forced White House spokesmen and others to insist Washington’s foreign policy of “strategic ambiguity” on the China-Taiwan stand-off had not changed.

On Tuesday, Sailesh Bhundia, senior director within the portfolio management team at EFG Asset Management in London, England, was answering questions after his remarks to Hamilton Rotarians at their lunch meeting at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club in Paget.

He was discussing investment opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region when he said the president’s remarks this weekend were “irresponsible“ and could lead to some instability in the already fragile geopolitical scene involving China and Taiwan.

“If China did do anything to Taiwan, I think there would be an international uproar, and I think the US would...somehow....But I don’t know how they would do it.

“I think boots on the ground would be...nah, it's not worth...Your (investment) portfolio would be the last thing you would be thinking about, at that stage.”

He continued discussing the variety of geopolitical uncertainties in the world at present, noting: “It seems to have all come at once in the last ten years.”