Nato

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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 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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source