Jim Costa: “This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. We helped create…”

“This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. We helped create NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, not only to protect our European allies, but to protect our interests. For 70 years, it has done just that, a remarkable success. Next month, in April, we have invited the Secretary General of NATO to come address a bipartisan joint session of Congress to take assessment of and to commend our NATO partners, along with the United States, for a job well done. How do you say a job well done? Well, after World War II, over the last 70 years, this is the longest peacetime period in Europe in 1,000 years. Think about that. The last 70 years has been the longest peacetime period in Europe in more than 1,000 years. NATO has been one of the cornerstones that has created that peace dividend, being an absolute and critical barrier against the aggression of the Soviet Union and other totalitarian states, being there for the fall of the Iron Curtain. NATO's relevance today is just as important as it was then. ____________________”