Roy Blunt: “I want to join my colleagues in my appreciation for the expansion of NATO--as others have said, the greatest alliance…”

“I want to join my colleagues in my appreciation for the expansion of NATO--as others have said, the greatest alliance, maybe in history, certainly in the last 200 years, an alliance that has served great benefits and now is growing. NATO has been there since 1949. The two countries that we are going to be voting to admit today have resisted since 1949 being part of NATO, but with the recent actions, they decided you now have to choose a side. Now, they are not countries that have been on the sideline just hoping nothing would happen. They are countries that had significant defense capacities, significant military capabilities. They will be net security contributors to NATO. They bring to the alliance these advanced capabilities. They bring a neighborhood understanding of Russia, greater than maybe almost any other country, particularly Finland, which has been mentioned has an 800-plus mile border that will double the NATO border with Russia. They have been defending that border since World War II, and the Russians understand their capacity to defend it. They, frankly, bring good real estate and good location. I wish I had a map here on the floor with me, but I don't. The Baltic really becomes a NATO sea.…”