[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 24 (Monday, February 7, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ARGENTINA'S ONE BELT, ONE ROAD INITIATIVE

  (Mr. GAETZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, while the Biden administration, the media, 
and many in Congress beat the drums of war for Ukraine, there is a far 
more significant threat to our Nation accelerating rapidly close to 
home.
  Argentina, a critical nation and economy in the Americas, has just 
lashed itself to the Chinese Communist Party by signing on to the One 
Belt, One Road Initiative.
  The cost to China was $23.7 billion, a mere fraction of a rounding 
error when compared to the trillions of dollars our country has spent 
trying to build democracies out of sand and blood in the Middle East.
  China buying influence and infrastructure in Argentina to collaborate 
on space and nuclear energy is a direct challenge to the Monroe 
Doctrine, and far more significant to American security than our latest 
NATO flirtation in the plains of Eastern Europe.
  China is a rising power. Russia is a declining power. Let us sharpen 
our focus so that we do not join them in that eventual fate.

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