[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 6, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4212-S4213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Ukraine

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I would like to begin today by quoting 
a concise assessment of threats facing the United States and our 
interests.

       A central continuity in history is the contest for power. . 
     . . Three main sets of challengers--the revisionist powers of 
     China and Russia, the rogue states of Iran and North Korea, 
     and transnational threat organizations, particularly jihadist 
     terrorist groups--are actively competing against the United 
     States and our allies and partners. . . . China and Russia 
     want to shape a world antithetical to U.S. values and 
     interests. China seeks to displace the United States in the 
     Indo-Pacific region, expand the reaches of its state-driven 
     economic model, and reorder the region in its favor. Russia 
     seeks to restore its great power status and establish spheres 
     of influence near its borders.

  That was the previous administration's national security strategy 
back in 2017. If anything, the threats it warned about at the end of 
its first year in office are even greater today.
  Russia and China have both become more repressive at home and more 
aggressive abroad. Just before Russia's escalation of its war against 
Ukraine, our two most significant revisionist adversaries announced a 
``friendship without limits.'' In the past year and a half, Putin has 
aligned Russia even more openly with rogue regimes hostile to the 
United States, like Iran and North Korea. We must not ignore this 
contest for power.
  Here is another passage from the 2017 strategy:

       To prevail, we must integrate all elements of America's 
     national power--political, economic, and military. Our allies 
     and partners must also contribute [to] the capabilities, and 
     demonstrate the will, to confront shared threats. Experience 
     suggests that the willingness of rivals to abandon or forgo 
     aggression depends on their perception of U.S. strength and 
     the vitality of our alliances.

  In my view, the lessons are clear.
  Under the previous administration, we began to rebuild America's 
strength with defense budget increases. Under the current 
administration, that strength has been undermined by a disastrous 
withdrawal from Afghanistan, desperate diplomacy towards Tehran, and a 
head-in-the-sand approach to North Korea.
  Our enemies have been encouraged by meager defense budgets across 
NATO, including repeated budget requests by this administration that 
failed to even keep up with inflation.
  Since Putin's escalation in Ukraine, President Biden has not been as 
decisive as many of us would have preferred, but this is no excuse for 
Congress to compound his administration's failures with failures of our 
own.
  Now, with NATO unified and Europe awakened from its defense holiday 
and starting to spend real money on our collective defense, is 
certainly not the time to go wobbly. Now, with Ukraine bravely 
defending its sovereignty and

[[Page S4213]]

eroding Russia's capacity to threaten NATO, is not the time to ease up. 
Now, with Russia and China's ``friendship without limits'' and Putin's 
embrace of Iran and North Korea, is not the time for America to step 
back.
  I will have more to say on the conflict in Ukraine, how the President 
hasn't been decisive enough, how our assistance is being used to good 
effect, and how additional appropriations are critical for our defense 
industrial base and competition with China, but for now, let's just be 
absolutely clear about a few things.
  Helping Ukraine retake its territory means weakening--means 
weakening--one of America's biggest strategic adversaries without 
firing a shot and deterring another one in the process. It means 
investing directly in American strength, both military and economic. 
Our colleagues will have the opportunity to do all of these when we 
pass supplemental appropriations before the month is out.