Nato

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, today, world leaders are descending on our Nation's Capital for an important NATO summit, the 2024 NATO summit-- the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is fitting that this gathering is taking place in our Nation's Capital because this is where the story of NATO began.

In April of 1949, leaders of the United States and our closest allies gathered here in the Nation's Capital to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. With the stroke of a pen, those 12 countries became the founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The core mission of NATO can be summed up in only two words: collective defense. An attack against one ally is considered an attack against all allies. Of course, Europe had been through two devastating world wars, and the hope was, by creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, that aggression could be deterred and, thus, the peace maintained.

Seventy-five years ago, this commitment aimed to deter the Soviet Union from expanding its influence into Western Europe. Nearly 23 years ago, the collective defense clause was invoked for the first and only time in history in the wake of the attacks on the United States on 9/ 11. America's NATO allies were there when we needed them--an act of friendship and support that we should never forget.

Today, the collective defense clause continues to serve as a firewall that safeguards NATO member states and underpins global security. And in the 75 years since NATO was founded, its membership has grown from 12 to 32 countries, and its influence continues to grow with the recent additions of Sweden and Finland.

Beyond ensuring the security of its members, NATO plays a key role in maintaining peace and stability around the world. Suffice it to say, NATO leaders have a big job ahead of them this week. Conflicts are unfolding around the globe, and democracy is under attack by the world's leading aggressors.

Nearly 2\1/2\ years have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the fighting has not let up. Yesterday, Russia fired missiles at a children's hospital in Kyiv and other sites across Ukraine--killing at least 38 people and injuring more than 100.

In addition to the fighting in Europe, a war is also raging in the Middle East, as we know. More than 9 months have passed since the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas against civilians in Israel, but Israel is not only defending its sovereignty against Hamas. It is also battling direct fire from Hezbollah and Iran. Just to be clear, Iran is the head of the snake here. Hezbollah and Hamas are proxies for Iran, committed to the ultimate destruction of Israel.

In addition to the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, tensions are growing in the Indo-Pacific as well. The Chinese Communist Party continues to bully and threaten China's neighbors in the region. Just last week, China anchored one of its Coast Guard ships off the coast of the Philippines in a clear act of intimidation. This came after another incident last month when Chinese Coast Guard crewmen attacked Filipino sailors trying to resupply the Sierra Madre. One sailor lost his thumb, and a Philippine Navy boat was left in tatters. Clearly, China is testing America's commitment and the commitments of democracies around the world to protect a treaty ally in the Pacific.

While the Senate was in recess last week, I had the privilege of traveling to Romania, Armenia, and Malta with a bipartisan delegation of Members led by our friend, Senator Roger Wicker--the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee and one of the principal delegates to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Our conversations with our allies around the world affirmed a key point that cannot be overlooked: None of these conflicts that are playing out today are occurring in a vacuum--not the wars in Ukraine or in the Middle East or the tensions in the Indo- Pacific. Everything is connected. We might wish that it weren't true, but it is inarguably true, and this instability we are facing today has serious downstream consequences.

As each of these conflicts has played out, we have witnessed a daunting realignment of powers around the world that is reminiscent of what we saw in the 1930s with the rise of Germany.

Today, Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran have grown closer and closer together through an intricate web of weapons, technology, and energy transfers. In short, the tyrants of the world today are drawing closer and closer together, forming a modern-day axis of evil. When these big powers are at odds, the international order frays, and the regional players take advantage of the situation as it suits their interests. That point was driven home during our visit to Armenia--the former Russian satellite--when we discussed the ongoing instability in the Caucasus.

Now, I know you have to pull out a map to figure out where some of these countries are, but they are critical in terms of our analysis of the threats not only in the region but in the potential to spread those threats and major conflicts to other parts of the world.

In 2020, Russia brokered a deal to end the military conflict between Armenia and its neighbor Azerbaijan over longstanding territorial disputes. Russia promised to deploy peacekeepers to the region to enforce that agreement, but it is safe to say that Russia has not upheld its end of the deal. Each year since that deal was reached, Azerbaijan, supported by Turkiye, has encroached further and further into Armenian territory, and Russia has done nothing to stop it, notwithstanding its agreement to do so. Understandably, Armenian leaders are outraged by the situation. They signed a treaty, after all, to prevent this exact scenario, and Russia has abandoned its promise.

Our conversations with the Armenian leaders were powerful reminders of why it is so important to honor our security commitments around the world. We have made a commitment to our NATO allies, to Ukraine, to Israel, and to other partners around the world to support their security. But the truth is, their security is part of our security because we know, from history, that conflicts can arise in unpredictable places and can spread like a wildfire, thus directly challenging the United States' national security.

So that is why we cannot and we must not back out of these promises and risk other countries seeing us as an unreliable ally, because the truth is that weakness or unreliability is a provocation to the bullies and tyrants and autocrats around the world. When they see weakness, they continue to probe until they come up against resistance. Whether we are talking about an ally or an adversary, countries around the world must not doubt America's commitment to our own national security, as well as the security of our allies, partners, and friends.

I say all of this to emphasize how much is at stake today. Presently, this is the most dangerous period of our history and of world history since World War II. We are talking about far more than the fates of individual states or governments. The stability of the international order is hanging in the balance.

With the NATO summit here in Washington this week, the eyes of the world are once again on the leadership. Like it or not, if the United States fails to lead, there is no other country that can fill the void. This is part of the responsibility that comes with being the preeminent economic and military power in the world--again, not for the purpose of conquest but for the purpose of deterring and discouraging conflicts from breaking out because, again, we know how these can spin out of control as a result of miscalculation or a mistake or otherwise.

Leaders from around the world--our friends and allies--are watching to see how the United States responds to the threats unfolding around the globe. They are watching us to see if we will live up to our commitments--things like the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, wherein we agreed to protect the sovereignty of Ukraine in exchange for their giving up their nuclear weapons. At the time, Ukraine had the third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world, and they gave up those nuclear weapons in exchange for that guarantee to protect their sovereignty. That is part of what is at stake today in Ukraine.

Our friends and allies are watching our support for Ukraine, our assistance for Israel, and the message that we are sending to China. They are testing our attention span to see if we are so distracted by other major conflicts or other things happening around the world that it creates an opening for smaller ones, and they are watching to see if our commitments to our allies are truly ironclad and can be depended upon.

So, this week, President Biden has one job to do, and that is to deliver a clear and powerful message to our allies. He must reaffirm America's commitment to collective defense. He must demonstrate decisive leadership and solidarity with our NATO allies. He needs to deliver a strong warning to our would-be adversaries that attacks against the United States and our allies will not be tolerated.

Russia, China, Iran, North Korea--they are all watching, and there is no room for weakness or vacillation when it comes to sending this important message of deterrence. Deterrence, of course, is what maintains the peace. We never want war. We never want military conflict. We want to be so strong and so intimidating with our friends and allies that our adversaries won't take that step of initiating a military conflict.

I hope President Biden can summon up the energy and the forcefulness and the ability to express this important message to our friends and allies around the world because our adversaries are watching, but so are our friends.

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