[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 130 (Wednesday, August 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3892-S3894]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Amendment No. 5192
Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 5192 and ask that it be
reported by number.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Alaska [Mr. Sullivan] proposes an
amendment numbered 5192.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To provide a declaration to the Protocol)
In section 2, strike paragraph (6) and insert the
following:
(6) Support for 2014 wales summit defense spending
benchmark.--The Senate declares that all NATO members should
spend a minimum of 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) on defense and 20 percent of their defense budgets on
major equipment, including research and development, by 2024,
as outlined in the 2014 Wales Summit Declaration.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, after World War II, European leaders
looked to the United States to help heal a fractured world and to help
provide safety against increasing communist Russian aggression. As
Winston Churchill said:
There I sat with the great Russian bear on one side of me
with paws outstretched and, on the other side, the great
American Buffalo.
Well, the Buffalo prevailed, NATO prevailed, and the world's most
successful and enduring military alliance was born.
In 1949, the Senate ratified the NATO treaty by a vote of 82 to 13.
President Truman was quoted at the signing ceremony of the NATO treaty
by saying:
In this pact, we hope to create a shield against aggression
and the fear of aggression . . . For us, war is not
inevitable.
He continued:
Men with courage and vision can still determine their own
destiny. They can choose slavery or freedom--war or peace. .
. . The treaty we are signing here today is evidence of the
path they will follow.
That was when President Truman signed the first NATO treaty.
And, indeed, since the formation of NATO, no world wars have broken
out, no country that is a signatory of NATO
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has been invaded by another country's military forces. In fact, the
only time NATO's article V--which is the pillar of the alliance, which
states that an attack on one is an attack on all--was invoked was
actually after the terrorist attacks on America on 9/11. Our allies
came to our help to ensure Afghanistan wouldn't harbor terrorists, and
we appreciate that help. We appreciate it deeply from our NATO allies.
NATO, however, is more than just a military alliance. It is a group
of countries with shared values and beliefs and a commitment to the
principles of democracy. All of this, in addition to the military
alliance, is the heritage of NATO.
President Ronald Reagan summed it up succinctly in a speech to our
NATO allies in 1983:
What do the Soviets mean by words like democracy, freedom,
and peace? Not, I'm sorry to say, what we mean.
Replace the word ``Soviet'' with ``Russia,'' and the sentiment,
unfortunately, holds true today. We see the antithesis of these
democratic values and shared beliefs of NATO being played out in real
time before us in the streets of Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin is
leading a brutal assault on Ukraine--Russia's democratic neighbor--and
committing atrocities, horrible atrocities, against the brave people of
that country.
As both Presidents Truman and Reagan remarked, members of the NATO
alliance are like members of the same house in the same family--the
house and the family of democracy.
So, today, the U.S. Senate will welcome the nations of Sweden and
Finland into the NATO family. Like any family, we may not agree on
everything, but when it is most important, we will have each other's
back. That is the essence of NATO and the core reason for its success.
Neither Russia nor any other country will be able to invade Sweden or
Finland, now that they have become members of NATO, without its NATO
allies coming to their support.
Of course, Finland has experienced the Russian invasion. In 1939,
where, without the help from other nations, its greatly outnumbered
brave Finnish army fought off over 1 million Russian forces for 3
months. But that won't happen again to Finland. It won't happen to
Sweden. They won't be alone now.
We welcome these countries' commitment to freedom and their advanced
professional militaries, which will make NATO stronger.
To Finland and Sweden, no longer will you be working with NATO. You
will now be working in and part of the greatest defense alliance in
history. So welcome to these great countries.
As Churchill once said:
There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies,
and that is fighting without them!
I strongly support the inclusion of these two great nations, Sweden
and Finland, into the NATO alliance. Important occasions like this are
also an opportunity to reflect on the obligations of membership, not
just for these new NATO members but for all NATO members.
And on the heels of the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea in
2014, the heads of state and representatives of the then-28 member
countries who made up NATO attended a very important summit, a NATO
summit, in Wales. There, they agreed upon a common goal for all NATO
members that they would spend a minimum of 2 percent of their gross
domestic product on defense by 2024. This 2 percent of GDP NATO defense
spending goal has been strongly supported for decades by American
administrations, both Republican and Democratic: Presidents Bush,
Obama, Trump, and now President Biden.
At the time, in 2014, of the NATO summit in Wales, 10 of the 28
members of NATO met that 2-percent guideline. Now, 8 years later in
2022, of the 30 NATO country members, we only have 8 of those 30
meeting that 2-percent threshold.
I have a chart here. It lays out the 2-percent goal: who is above it,
who is below it. It is many other countries besides the ones that are
listed there. But the bottom line is, since Wales and that important
commitment, there has not been much progress in NATO on this shared
goal and commitment.
Now, I am a very strong supporter of NATO and a very strong supporter
of the U.S. military, and I want NATO to endure for decades to come.
But alliances can't endure if shared commitments and shared burdens are
not met. This is particularly true for democratic alliances like NATO.
There must be a sense among the citizens of such countries that all are
pulling their weight for the collective defense of the alliance, for
the collective defense of each other.
So as I mentioned at the outset, I am calling up an amendment to the
resolution. My amendment is to make this commitment clear. It is to
announce the U.S. Senate's expectation for all NATO members: the United
States, existing members, and now new members--expectations on what has
already been agreed to by each NATO country and its citizens.
The amendment is simple. It states the following:
The Senate declares that all NATO members should spend a
minimum of 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product . . . on
defense and 20 percent of their defense budget on major
equipment, including research and development, by 2024, as
outlined in the 2014 Wales Summit Declaration.
That is it. It is a simple amendment, and I hope it can pass in the
next hour by voice vote.
Let me conclude with this: A robust, expanded NATO with Finland and
Sweden as new members is needed now more than ever, especially given
the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We need to fully understand
the broader implications of this invasion. We have entered a new era of
authoritarian aggression, led by Russia and China's dictators, who are
increasingly isolated and dangerous, driven by historical grievances,
paranoid about their democratic neighbors, and willing to use military
force and other aggressive actions to crush the citizens of such
countries. These dangerous dictators, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping,
are increasingly working together to achieve their aggressive goals.
We must wake up to the fact that this new era of authoritarian
aggression will likely be with us for decades. We need to face it with
strategic resolve and confidence. The United States has extraordinary
advantages relative to the dictatorships of Russia and China, if we are
wise enough to utilize and strengthen them: our global network of
allies, our lethal military, our world-class supplies of energy and
other natural resources, our dynamic economy, and, most important, our
democratic values and commitment to liberty.
Xi Jinping and Putin's biggest weakness and vulnerability is that
they fear their own people. We should remember this and exploit this in
the months and years ahead. NATO, as an alliance, encompasses so many
of these powerful comparative advantages: a lethal military, a global
network of allies, dynamic economies, and the power of democratic
values and the commitment to liberty.
We should all welcome and celebrate the addition of Finland and
Sweden to the NATO alliance, but we should also use this moment to
recognize the seriousness of the authoritarian threats on the rise all
over the world and recommit ourselves, all NATO members, to our
obligations of collective defense, moving forward.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Maryland.
Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, first of all, I want to applaud the
Senator from Alaska for his comments. I agree completely with his
statements, and I think his amendment making it clear that we expect
the 2 percent to be honored by all member states is something that we
all should welcome and agree to.
I thank you for your leadership. I also thank you for how you have
articulated the importance of NATO to our national security.
NATO is a transatlantic security partnership that has served our
national security interests so well for so many years since the end of
World War II.
Today, we are going to have a chance to vote to expand the NATO
alliance by adding Finland and Sweden. I hope all my colleagues will
support that.
I will point out that Finland already exceeds the 2 percent that
Senator
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Sullivan is talking about, the percentage of their GDP that they are
spending on defense. So I think this is another reason why we have
countries that we want to add to the alliance. We have 30 strong now.
This will even be stronger with Finland and Sweden being added to the
NATO alliance.
But what is unique about the two countries that we will have a chance
to vote on in a few moments is that they give us added value to our
alliance. They make our alliance stronger. It is in our national
security interest to include Finland and Sweden. They add value
militarily and economically to this alliance.
The geostrategic location of these two countries is critically
important to our national security. Just think for a moment about the
threats to the Baltic nations that we have seen by Russia--Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania. Think about where Poland has been threatened
because of Russia's aggression in Ukraine.
Adding Finland and Sweden will help us round out the security
alliance necessary to provide the security that we need. Both of these
countries are already committed to interoperability with the NATO
alliance. They are already familiar with how NATO's process and
procedures are utilized.
So we have two countries that are ready from day one to be active
participants in the alliance. They both participate in regular
participation and training exercises with NATO and U.S. forces. Both
Sweden and Finland have done that. They have contributed troops. Sweden
has contributed troops to NATO-led operations in Kosovo, to
Afghanistan, to Iraq. So we have countries that have already stepped up
to help us in security and now will be a formal part of the security
alliance.
They will add, also, a dimension that is important for us in regards
to winter warfare. The cold response winter warfare exercises have been
participated in. Finland has the arctic capabilities that will be
critically important to us as we move forward. So we are adding value
to the NATO alliance as well as expanding the number of countries.
I want to mention one other area: cyber and misinformation. We have
two countries that have been very active in being victimized by the
misinformation campaign by Russia. Sweden has a Psychological Defence
Agency that they created in 2016 that is going to be important for us.
As we know, Mr. Putin uses every weapon in his arsenal, including
misinformation, in order to try to bring down democratic states. We
know that in Sweden's case, they are already taking decisive action to
counter the misinformation. Finland has an anti-fake-news initiative,
which is actually fascinating. They recognize that Russia is trying to
invade their country through misinformation, and they have an active
way of defending against it. So, as I said earlier, we have two
countries that will add value to the alliance.
The timing here couldn't be better. We have stood up an international
resolve to support Ukraine in the invasion by Russia. Expanding NATO at
this moment is a clear message to Mr. Putin that we stand with the
democratic countries of Europe and we are prepared to expand our NATO
alliance to guarantee their protection.
So these two stalwart, democratic nations, Finland and Sweden, have
been robust partners to the United States and Europe on countless
fronts. They have provided humanitarian aid to many countries in need,
including Ukraine during the unprovoked invasion by Russia. Combined,
Finland and Sweden provided over $120 million in military and
humanitarian aid to Ukraine between February and June of 2022.
These two nations have also shown a commitment to democratic
governance, ranking third and fourth respectively on the global
Democracy Index of 2020, according to an economist group. So we have
two of the leading democratic states.
Finland and Sweden have proven time and time again that they have the
defense capabilities and commitment to democracy in Europe to make them
essential NATO allies. The Senate must act now to bolster this global
peace and security by voting in favor of Finland and Sweden's accession
to the North Atlantic Treaty. I urge my colleagues to do that.