Political Quotes

“I rise to join the leaders of the codel that I just had the honor and blessing of joining, Senators Shaheen and Tillis, and a number of the other members of that codel, Senators Ernst and Blunt. And I was grateful for the chance to travel with Senators Durbin and Fischer. I want to just join in my colleagues' statements today. I think this was a tremendous opportunity for us in Sweden and in Finland to meet with nations that are advanced economies, that are closely aligned with our values, that have sophisticated militaries, and that now, for the very first time, are seeking admission to NATO. NATO is the most successful security alliance in world history, and it is rooted in shared values and shared concerns and interests. One of the most vulnerable pieces of NATO, if you looked at the map just a few months ago, were three little Baltic States--Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia--that, for decades, were under the heel of the Soviet Union. They were relatively newly independent in recent decades, admitted to NATO, but very difficult to defend. One of the reasons I joined with my colleagues to say here, as we did in Madrid, that we should swiftly ratify the joining to NATO of both Sweden and Finland is that they will provide security. They will be security contributors to this alliance.…”