[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 113 (Tuesday, July 9, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4252-S4253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  NATO

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, in 1949, 12 nations gathered here in 
Washington to establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 
Seventy-five years later, our Nation's Capital welcomes NATO's 32 
members back for a pivotal summit.
  The most successful military alliance in human history has shepherded 
the free world through serious challenges--from nuclear-armed Cold War, 
through vicious terrorist attacks, to a new chapter of multipolar 
competition. This has always been a collective effort, but it has 
always required American leadership, and today, America and our allies 
face a serious test of resolve.
  Russian aggression, Iran-backed terror, unchecked nuclear 
proliferation from North Korea, and China's bid for hegemony aren't 
just regional concerns; they are facets of an increasingly coordinated 
threat to Americans' security and prosperity.
  The transatlantic alliance faces doubts at home and abroad about the 
credibility of our commitment to uphold this order. All NATO allies 
will share the risks if it is undone. All of us will suffer if 
autocrats and despots succeed in rewriting rules and redrawing maps. 
Even still, on the occasion of the Washington summit, there are 
encouraging signs that NATO is rising to meet the challenges.
  Two years on, brutal Russian escalation hasn't just woken European 
allies from decades of neglect for their military capabilities; it has 
spurred a sea change in defense policy all across Europe and a 
renaissance of investment in defense industrial bases and cutting-edge 
weapons.
  Across Europe, America's allies are investing 18 percent more on 
their defenses than they were a year ago. More than two-thirds of 
NATO's members

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have now met or exceeded the alliance's 2 percent defense spending 
target. Just as important, many are committing 20 percent of their 
defense budgets to procuring new weapons and capabilities.
  But the latest data did more than confirm the end of our ``holiday 
from history''; they also prove what I have been explaining to our 
colleagues for years: When America leads by example, allies invest 
right here in America. A full two-thirds of our allies' spending on new 
defense procurement is going to buy American-made weapons and systems. 
Right now, U.S. industry is filling more than $140 billion in contracts 
booked by European allies.
  Many allies also are expanding their own defense industrial 
capacity--an encouraging and necessary step that will make NATO even 
more resilient.
  Of course, one of the most encouraging developments since the last 
NATO summit has been the addition of two strong, new allies with highly 
capable militaries and cutting-edge industrial bases of their own. It 
was a tremendous honor to work closely with the leaders of Finland and 
Sweden throughout their accession to the alliance, and I am proud to 
join the Democratic leader in hosting them on Capitol Hill this week.
  Today, the enemies of Western peace and prosperity are giving us good 
reason--good reason--to take the strength of our alliances and 
partnerships even more seriously. The authoritarians and rogue states 
seeking to undermine us are working together, and we can't afford not 
to do the same. That is why all NATO allies need to take hard power 
more seriously; why the 2-percent defense spending target is a floor 
but is not a ceiling; why these spending increases must be built into 
base budgets, not treated as one-off emergencies; and why contracting 
and procurement have to move at the speed of relevance, not the speed 
of bureaucracy.
  These lessons apply as much to America as they do to our European 
allies, and they apply even more so to our neighbor to the north. 
Canada is one of the only allies without a plan to reach the 2-percent 
spending target.
  It is encouraging that as NATO members address the deficiencies of 
our own collective security obligations, we are joined this week by 
essential non-NATO partners who are taking increasingly clear-eyed 
approaches to their own security.
  The presence of leaders from the Indo-Pacific is an especially 
powerful reminder of our shared stake in the future of a Western order 
that preserves the freedom of navigation, territorial integrity, and 
the right to self-determination.
  I will have more to say as the week goes on, but I am grateful for 
the opportunity to welcome America's friends to Washington at this 
critical time, and I am hopeful that together, the alliance will make 
headway on the serious business before us.