[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 37 (Monday, February 27, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S494]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Congressional Delegation

  Madam President, last week, I joined with a number of Senate 
colleagues in leading my first congressional delegation as majority 
leader. We went to Germany, India, Pakistan, and Israel. I have only 
been on one other codel in all of my years as a Senator--back in 2011 
with Harry Reid to China.
  I thank all of my colleagues for making this trip a success. There 
were nine of us. Now that we are back, I want to share a few takeaways 
from our trip that implicate America's national security and our 
economic future.
  First, we relayed a very important message during our meeting with 
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: India and America are going to 
need each other to outcompete the Chinese Communist Party.
  India is precisely the kind of partner that the United States needs 
to provide a check against the hostile tactics of the CCP. They are the 
world's largest democracy--still young compared to its peers--and 
primed for tremendous growth in the decades to come.
  I told the Prime Minister that, if our democracies are to prosper in 
this century, we are going to have to work together not only to boost 
our common defense but to promote our mutual prosperity. That means 
working together to strengthen our economic ties, deepen trade, and 
make it easier to recruit talented workers from abroad to work in our 
country.
  It also means we must collaborate to establish the norms for the 
technologies of the future. Right now, the world's democracies are 
competing with the Chinese Communist Party to dominate the technologies 
that will rule this century, like artificial intelligence, quantum 
computing, clean energy, advanced semiconductor manufacturing, and 
more.
  India, the United States, and all of the world's democracies--we are 
the largest two--must make sure these technologies become vectors of 
prosperity, not the weapons of autocratic regimes. We have already seen 
how the Chinese Communist Party uses AI to eavesdrop on its people and 
prevent them from getting full knowledge or just propaganda. I think 
the Prime Minister appreciated the point we were making about the need 
for India and the United States--the two largest democracies--to work 
together against the CCP hegemony.
  India is an amazing country. I was enthralled by it. Incredible. It 
has a thriving diaspora, many of whom live in New York, here in the 
United States. Our partnership has a huge potential for growth in the 
21st century.
  On a second point about our codel, during the codel, we also met with 
leaders in Pakistan, Germany, and Israel. Much of our discussion with 
them, as well as with Prime Minister Modi of India, stressed the 
importance of standing with Ukraine in its struggle against Russia. We 
asked each of these leaders to do more. It has been more than a year 
now since Vladimir Putin began his illegal invasion, and I made it 
clear to leaders abroad that the worst thing we could do right now is 
to waver in our support of the Ukrainian people. I warned them that a 
Russian victory in Ukraine would not mean an end to Putin's escapades 
and expansionist proclivities so much as it would mean an escalation of 
his viciousness and desire for more territory.

  Success in Ukraine will only embolden Putin if he sees the free 
nations of the world turn a blind eye to his aggressions. Should Putin 
win in Ukraine, it would endanger the security of democracies and 
burgeoning democracies across the world, and I think the leaders I 
spoke with--the leaders all nine of us spoke with--got that message.
  Finally, on a more personal note, I was deeply moved to join with my 
colleagues to lay wreaths at both the Dachau Concentration Camp in 
Germany and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. As the highest ranking elected 
Jewish leader in U.S. history and the first Jewish majority leader, I 
used these visits as a chance to reaffirm the Senate's commitment to 
never forget this dark chapter in human history. At a time when public 
understanding of the Holocaust is waning, as the next generation is 
further removed from the horrors--the just sheer horrors--of the past, 
and as anti-Semitism makes its resurgence at home and around the globe, 
now more than ever, we must commit to that sacred obligation to never 
forget.
  Elie Wiesel said:

       The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for 
     good men to do nothing.

  We must never remain silent. We must never allow anti-Semitism and 
bigotry to fester and flourish. We must recommit to never, never again.
  I want to thank my colleagues who joined with me at both Dachau and 
Yad Vashem, and I thank everyone--Members and staff alike--for the 
incredible job they did and for their excellent work in making our trip 
fruitful and productive.