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Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, I want to thank my friend and colleague Senator Portman for his work and his focus on Ukraine, and I want to thank my friend and colleague Senator Shaheen. It has been a real pleasure once we started up the Senate NATO Observer Group after it had been dormant for some time. Who knew that it could have been more timely several years ago when we began that process?

I was thinking--I have used this analogy before. I grew up in a family of six kids. We, even to this day, have our differences and disagreements. I have one sister I am pretty sure wouldn't vote for me if she lived in North Carolina. We are not ideologically aligned. But I know she loves me, and I know, when our family gets threatened, there is no difference between us.

That is what Vladimir Putin saw on February 24. He saw the family of nations in NATO come together like he couldn't possibly have imagined, and he saw two nations, Finland and Sweden, after decades of being nonaligned, saying: Enough is enough. Now it is time to pick between good and evil. And evil is Vladimir Putin, and good is Western democracies--Western democracies like Finland and Sweden which respect the rule of law, which respect the rights of their citizens, which respect the free press, which invest in their military, and which will be a net exporter of security the day they enter NATO.

As a matter of fact, they are already a very valuable asset to NATO. I have spoken with many of my colleagues in the Department of Defense, many people in uniform. They laud the relationship that they have with the military in Finland and Sweden. They work together on exercises. They know that Finland has a formidable ground force. They know that Sweden has a formidable navy that is going to give us added presence in the Baltics and added presence in the Arctic.

The worst possible scenario that Putin never anticipated was a completely unified NATO and the addition of 830 miles--1,340 kilometers--of NATO border right up against Russia. That is what he has gotten for his illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the blood of thousands are on Vladimir Putin's hands.

Now I want to talk a little bit about Finland and Sweden, but I also have to start with that letter. I remember vividly, Senator Shaheen, when we were meeting with Swedish diplomats and the Defense Minister, and we were saying: What can we do to send a signal to the people of Finland and Sweden that the United States is absolutely supportive of their accession to NATO?

And they said: Well, communications would be good.

And we said: Well, we will do a letter.

In 24 hours, we got 80 signatures. Now, the question would be, Why not the other 20? Quite honestly, we didn't take the time. Everybody that we went to signed on to the letter, but we thought it was important to get that communication out quickly.

Today, we are going to see more than 95 Senators--I think even more than that--vote for ratification because they understand that Finland and Sweden are investing in their military. They understand that Finland is already at 2 percent and continuing to invest. They know that Finland has already put on order 64 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

Why is that extraordinary? Finland is about half the population of my State, North Carolina, about 5\1/2\ million people. They have on order 64 Joint Strike Fighters. We have fewer than 200 in full operation here in the United States. If we, on a per capita basis, were to have as many Joint Strike Fighters as Finland intends to have, we would need more than 4,000.

Now, let's talk about Sweden. Their industrial base is extraordinary. They have advanced fighter technology. They have advanced submarine technology. They have an industrial base that can be mobilized. They have an industrial base that is already developing platforms that are NATO interoperable.

When they come in, they are not going to have to do some sort of NATO 101. They are going to get to work. They are going to continue the work they are already doing.

And, in Sweden's case, there are some members here concerned about burden sharing and hitting the 2 percent mark. When we were in Stockholm, we talked about this. When we met with the diplomatic and Defense Ministers, we talked about this. They are on their way. They are committed. Their government officials are committed to getting to 2 percent funding, and thank goodness.

Maybe that sends a message to some of our other NATO countries that they need to get up there. If anything, Ukraine has taught us that we have to be ready, and we have to be at that level of burden sharing.

But I am not in the least bit concerned with Finland and Sweden meeting their target. They are going to do it, and they are going to do it on short order. I believe that Sweden will be there by 2027, early 2028.

So now, we have to move forward. Now, I am also being a little bit competitive. I am disappointed that we weren't the first nation, but I am also very optimistic. I am thrilled that so many nations have already recognized how valuable they will be as full-fledged NATO allies. So we are going to be 22nd, but we are doing it in record time. Everybody knows here that I describe this place as a ``Crockpot.'' It takes a long time to cook something in the U.S. Senate.

For us to do this in less than a month is absolutely extraordinary, and I hope that the people of Sweden and the people of Finland recognize that that is because the U.S. Senate has full confidence in them. We welcome them readily, and we look forward to their accession. This step in ratifying the treaty is a great step. So I encourage all of our Members to consider voting for Finland and Sweden.

The last thing I will leave you with is that there are some here who say: Well, we can't really worry about Russia. We have to worry about China.

We have to worry about both, and NATO is worried about both. If you look at the strategic concept that came out of Madrid, you should also recognize that there were four countries from INDOPACOM that were at a NATO summit. They recognize that we have to look at China and recognize the threat. But they also recognize that we have an immediate threat in Europe, and we have to stand together.

With NATO, I am very proud of how the partners came together, and with Sweden and Finland, I am going to be even more proud of our alliance when they are full-fledged members. And we are going to work as hard as we can as members of the Senate NATO Observer Group to make sure that the remaining countries follow suit quickly so that we can welcome both of these great nations into the greatest alliance that has ever existed.

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