[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 55 (Tuesday, March 29, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1833-S1835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
By Mr. DURBIN (for himself,
Mr. Grassley, Ms. Stabenow,
Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. King,
Mr. Blunt, Ms. Baldwin,
Mr. Cassidy, Mrs. Feinstein,
Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker,
Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Hassan,
Mr. Van Hollen, and Mr. Coons):
S. 3950. A bill to establish the Baltic Security and Economic
Enhancement Initiative for the purpose of increasing security and
economic ties with the Baltic countries and to establish the Baltic
Security Initiative for the purpose of deepening security cooperation
with the Baltic countries, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Foreign Relations.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on another matter, Senator Rob Portman of
Ohio and I are cochairs of the bipartisan Senate Ukraine Caucus.
Tomorrow, we are hosting a meeting for Senators with members of the
Ukrainian Parliament. The Parliament there is known as the Rada. They
are coming to Washington to discuss how we can help even more in
assisting the valiant people of Ukraine defending against this barbaric
invasion by Vladimir Putin. I hope our colleagues on both sides of the
aisle will join us to send a clear message to Ukraine that we stand
united in their efforts.
Putin's unprovoked and unconscionable war on Ukraine has revealed
what he is really all about. He is a tyrant seething with resentment,
driven by delusions of great mother Russia, willing to slaughter
innocent men, women, and children to restore a lost Russian Empire.
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We know from his current ravings and his past actions, Putin's
ruthless pursuit of Russia's lost empire didn't begin with this war,
and if we don't do something about it, it won't end there either.
In 2003, the people of Georgia--another Soviet Republic--waged a Rose
Revolution to claim a place among the family of democratic nations.
Putin's aggrieved response was to send troops into that country to
occupy portions of it--South Ossetia and Abkhazia--to redraw Georgia's
national boundaries by force. I traveled to that area in 2012 and saw
firsthand what Putin's occupation of that tiny nation meant.
In 2014, the people of Ukraine rose up to demand change as well--the
Revolution of Dignity, they called it. They succeeded and threw out the
deeply corrupt Russian-backed President. They ousted him from
Parliament. When they did, he fled to Moscow, his real home. Putin's
revenge months later was to send Russian troops to invade and annex the
Crimean peninsula and the Donbas regions of eastern Ukraine by force.
They have continued to wage that war.
I have mentioned many times my concern for this region, and I guess
it is attached to the fact that my mother was born in Lithuania and
came here as a little girl. Her family fled from the oppression of
czarist Russia, which then controlled the Baltic States and far beyond.
During World War II, the Baltic States endured brutal Nazi
occupation, and after the war, they were held captive behind the Iron
Curtain by the USSR.
In August 1989, 2 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, 2
million people in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia physically, literally,
joined hands in a peaceful protest. They formed a human chain, declared
that they wanted to join Europe and be part of the family of
democracies.
Two years later, the Baltics threw off Russian occupiers and
reclaimed their independence. It was a festive day. I was honored to be
a witness to part of it. They worked to achieve the reform fundamental
to democracies, to weed out corruption, establish market economies, and
encourage the growth of civil society.
In 2004, in a historic moment, a live-or-die moment for the Baltics,
they became part of NATO. It was the first time--the very first time
that NATO had opened its doors to nations that had been part of the
Soviet Union. Over the years, the Baltic States strengthened their
militaries to prove they would be assets and not liabilities to the
alliance.
Today, the Baltics provide a home to activists and dissidents from
Russia and Belarus and are a beacon of democracy. And I say that with
personal pride to have any association with these great nations.
In 2008, after Russia had annexed parts of Georgia, the President of
Poland visited Georgia's capital of Tbilisi and warned of the threat
posed by Russia to the entire region. He said:
Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow--
the Baltic States and, later, perhaps, time will come for
[his] country, Poland.
Well, today, Senator Grassley and I are introducing a bill to
discourage Russia from extending Putin's war into NATO territory and
forcing the alliance to invoke its article 5 collective security
commitment.
Our bill is called the Baltic Defense and Deterrence Act. It directs
the Department of State and the Department of Defense to establish and
implement economic and security initiatives to deepen U.S. ties with
the Baltic States. Our bill will strengthen our strong partnership. It
will enhance the capability of the region's critical allies in NATO's
eastern flank to respond to threats, including Russia's misinformation
and disinformation, their cyber warfare, and, in Lithuania's case,
growing economic pressure.
Cosponsors come from both sides of the aisle: Senators Stabenow,
King, Feinstein, Blunt, Blumenthal, Baldwin, Duckworth, Booker, and
Senator Scott of Florida. Representatives Ruben Gallego and Don Bacon
are cosponsoring a bipartisan companion bill in the House.
In conclusion, in 1997, Russian President Boris Yeltsin offered the
Baltic States unilateral security guarantees if they would give up
aspirations to join NATO. They refused. They were determined to become
their own sovereign states, their own democracy, and they have
succeeded.
Kurt Volker, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and former U.S. Special
Representative to Ukraine, has said that, far from being a burden on
NATO, the admission of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia has reinvigorated
the alliance. In his words, the Baltic States turned out to be ``the
best democratic and economic reformers, the ones most committed to
build fresh new militaries, and the ones willing to support the U.S. in
other fora.''
They have sent troops on costly U.S. missions, and their troops have
fought and died alongside NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. By
securing America's economic and security partnerships with the Baltics,
our bill will help deter Vladimir Putin from extending his barbaric war
into NATO territory.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 3950
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Baltic Defense and
Deterrence Act''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) supporting and strengthening the security of Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania (referred to in this Act as the
``Baltic countries'') is in the national security interests
of the United States;
(2) continuing to strengthen and update the United States-
Baltics security cooperation roadmap is critical to achieving
strategic security priorities as the Baltic countries face
ongoing belligerence and threats from the Russian Federation,
including amid the Russian Federation's illegal and
unprovoked war in Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022;
(3) the United States should encourage advancement of the
Three Seas Initiative to strengthen transport, energy, and
digital infrastructures among Eastern European countries,
including the Baltic countries; and
(4) improved economic ties between the United States and
the Baltic countries, including to counter economic pressure
by the People's Republic of China, offer an opportunity to
strengthen the United States-Baltic strategic partnership.
SEC. 3. BALTIC SECURITY AND ECONOMIC ENHANCEMENT INITIATIVE.
(a) Establishment.--The Secretary of State shall establish
and implement an initiative, to be known as the ``Baltic
Security and Economic Enhancement Initiative'', for the
purpose of increasing security and economic ties with the
Baltic countries.
(b) Objectives.--The objectives of the Baltic Security and
Economic Enhancement Initiative shall be--
(1) to ensure timely delivery of security assistance to the
Baltic countries, prioritizing assistance to bolster defenses
against hybrid warfare and improve interoperability with the
military forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization;
(2) to mitigate the impact on the Baltic countries of
economic coercion by the Russian Federation and the People's
Republic of China;
(3) to identify new opportunities for foreign direct
investment and United States business ties; and
(4) to bolster United States support for the economic and
energy security needs of the Baltic countries, including by
convening an annual trade forum with the Baltic countries and
the United States International Development Finance
Corporation.
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated for the Department of State, $60,000,000
for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027 to carry out the
initiative authorized under subsection (a).
SEC. 4. BALTIC SECURITY INITIATIVE.
(a) Establishment.--The Secretary of Defense shall
establish and implement an initiative, to be known as the
``Baltic Security Initiative'', for the purpose of deepening
security cooperation with the Baltic countries.
(b) Objectives.--The objectives of the Baltic Security
Initiative shall be--
(1) to achieve United States national security objectives,
including deterring aggression by the Russian Federation and
bolstering the long-term security of North Atlantic Treaty
Organization allies;
(2) to enhance regional planning and cooperation among the
Baltic countries, particularly with respect to long-term
regional capability projects, including--
(A) long-range precision fire systems and capabilities;
(B) integrated air and missile defense;
(C) maritime domain awareness;
(D) land forces development, including stockpiling large
caliber ammunition;
(E) command, control, communications, computers,
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance;
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(F) special operations forces development; and
(G) coordination with and security enhancements for Poland,
which is a neighboring North Atlantic Treaty Organization
ally; and
(3) to improve the Baltic countries' cyber defenses and
resilience to hybrid threats.
(c) Strategy.--
(1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall
submit to Congress a report setting forth the strategy of the
Department of Defense to achieve the objectives described in
subsection (b).
(2) Considerations.--The strategy required by paragraph (1)
shall include a consideration of--
(A) security assistance programs for the Baltic countries
managed by the Department of State;
(B) the ongoing security threats to the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization's eastern flank posed by Russian
aggression, including as a result of the Russia Federation's
2022 invasion of Ukraine with support from Belarus; and
(C) rising tensions with, and presence in the Baltic
countries of, the People's Republic of China, including
economic bullying of the Baltic countries by the People's
Republic of China.
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated for the Department of Defense,
$250,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027 to
carry out the initiative authorized under subsection (a).
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