[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 63 (Wednesday, April 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2256-S2257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SENATE NATO OBSERVER GROUP

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today the Democratic leader and I are 
proud to reestablish the Senate NATO Observer Group. The group was 
originally established in 1997 to provide a focal point for addressing 
NATO issues that cut across committee jurisdictions and to help educate 
Senators on the issues involved in any decision to enlarge NATO and to 
permit close interaction between the executive branch and the Senate 
during negotiations on NATO enlargement. Following the Senate's 
ratification of the protocols of accession in April 1998, the group 
ceased to function until it was reestablished on June 17, 2002. Senate 
Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Minority Leader Trent 
Lott of Mississippi announced the formation of a new Senate NATO 
Observer Group to follow NATO's decision to formally invite additional 
new countries to join the Alliance at the Prague Summit. In his floor 
announcement, Senator Daschle said the bipartisan Senate NATO Observer 
Group would ``advise the full Senate'' on NATO and the next round of 
NATO enlargement. The Senate NATO Observer Group remained active 
through 2007, but was ultimately disbanded due to a lack of NATO 
enlargement rounds.
  In arguing for reestablishment of the group, Senators Tillis and 
Shaheen wrote to Senator Schumer and I that: ``Exactly 10 years ago 
Estonia was one of the first countries to come under attack from 
Russia's modern form of hybrid warfare. In 2007, Russia conducted 
massive cyber-attacks on Estonia in response to Estonia's decision to 
relocate a Soviet Red Army memorial in Tallinn. One year later, as 
talks of eventual NATO membership for Georgia were debated, Russia 
activated its famed little green men in Georgia, invaded, and 
eventually occupied the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. 
These regions are under Russian occupation to this day.''
  In 2014, Ukraine befell a similar fate as Russia instigated a 
conflict, resulting in the occupation of Crimea and continued bloodshed 
in Ukraine's Donbass or eastern region. Since April 2014, when war 
erupted in eastern Ukraine, more than 10,000 people have died, a number 
which is steadily rising. Despite successive attempts at international 
negotiations and peace, the Kremlin grew more aggressive in its stance 
and, in 2016, expanded its malign efforts into Western Europe and the 
United States.
  During the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections, U.S. intelligence 
agencies were able to conclude that Russia interfered in the U.S. 
elections using a combination of hybrid tools. A similar pattern soon 
emerged across NATO states, where the Kremlin used both cyber attacks 
and disinformation to sow chaos and mistrust in Western democracies. 
Given these newfound challenges, increased engagement and assistance 
for transatlantic security was elevated as a critical priority for the 
Senate, as well as successive administrations.
  The 2018 Senate NATO Observer Group will mirror the structure and 
make-up of previous Senate NATO Observer Groups with eight Members 
serving ex officio, the two leaders plus the chairman and ranking 
member of the Appropriations, Armed Services, and Foreign Relations 
Committees. In addition, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate 
Intelligence Committee would also be invited to serve as ex-officio 
members. Senators Shaheen and Tillis, both Members of the Senate Armed 
Services Committee, would be named the cochairs, and a small group of 
Senators active on NATO issues would be named to the group jointly by 
the leaders and cochairs.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today I am pleased to join my colleague 
the Republican leader in reestablishing the Senate NATO Observer Group. 
In the late 1940s, under the stewardship of President Harry Truman, the 
United States led our Western allies in the creation of an 
unprecedented arrangement to provide for our collective defense. Since 
then, NATO has guaranteed the security of our European allies and has 
come to our aid, protecting the United States in its darkest hours 
following the 9/11 attacks. Today, new threats are emerging from Russia 
and along NATO's southern border, making the alliance more necessary 
than ever. It is the responsibility of the Senate to be kept abreast of 
any and all factors affecting such a key component of our national 
defense.
  The Senate NATO Observer group was first established in 1997 and 
oversaw the enlargement of our alliance to countries recently freed 
from Soviet domination in Eastern Europe. Following the reestablishment 
of the group in 2002 by Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and 
Minority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Senate NATO Observer 
group had an oversight role during the NATO mission in Afghanistan--
again, the only time a NATO member has invoked the right to collective 
self-defense.
  Unfortunately, since talks of further enlargement of the alliance 
expired 10 years ago, the Senate Observer Group lapsed. Since that 
time, Russia has reasserted itself in Eastern Europe through the 
aggressive use of hybrid warfare, including cyber infiltration of our 
allies' political infrastructure, as well as our own. While Georgia 
considered eventual NATO membership, Russia invaded and occupied South 
Ossetia and Abkhazia, regions which remain in Russian hands today. A 
similar fate befell Ukraine in 2014, when Russia's ``little green men'' 
were inserted into a civil conflict that spilled over into a civil war 
in which thousands of people died.
  As we learned during the 2016 Presidential election, the Kremlin's 
aggressive posture extends far beyond Russia's borders. American 
intelligence agencies have shown conclusively that Russia has 
interfered in elections at

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home and abroad using a sophisticated array of cyber attacks and 
disinformation to undermine confidence in the American political 
process and in Western democracy writ large. Neither the United States 
nor our NATO allies are immune from such attacks. That is why it is 
imperative that we continue to invest in and strengthen that alliance. 
Moreover, it is why the U.S. Senate must be actively involved in 
ensuring that our most important alliance remains alert to the serious 
issues before us.
  There are several pressing issues on which the observer group will 
immediately begin work on. NATO recently established a naval command 
for the Atlantic, dedicated to ensuring the freedom of the seas, a 
policy the United States has steadfastly upheld since the early days of 
the republic. In addition to an increased focus on protecting the sea 
lanes between Europe and North America, a new NATO logistics command 
and a cyber operations center are being formed in response to the 
continued aggressive posture of Russian forces along NATO's eastern 
border. Cyber defense in particular should be of acute interest to 
Senators in this group. Russian cyber attacks have damaged countries 
around the world and continue to threaten critical infrastructure in 
the United States. I look forward to learning how NATO will integrate 
each nation's cyber defense knowledge into its own and how we might 
learn from our allies about how best to protect ourselves from cyber 
warfare.
  This Congress began with a unanimous vote reaffirming the United 
States' commitment to article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. There can 
be no doubt that the Senate remains firmly committed to transatlantic 
security and to countering the malign influence of a hostile Kremlin at 
home and abroad. The opportunity to learn from our allies and prepare 
for the future is too important. So I am glad that my colleagues 
Senators Shaheen and Tillis have spearheaded the reestablishment of the 
NATO Observer Group, on which they will serve as cochairs.

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