Gregory Meeks: “This week, NATO leaders held a summit in Lithuania to discuss, address, and prepare for the alliance's future. It was…”

“This week, NATO leaders held a summit in Lithuania to discuss, address, and prepare for the alliance's future. It was done with the United States at the table, leading the efforts to galvanize ambitions in the face of multiple threats, most notably those related to Russia's unjust and tragic war against Ukraine. In Lithuania, allies agreed to continue to ramp up support for Ukraine and use the 2 percent of GDP amount as a floor. Some of our strongest allies in the alliance are set to move even beyond that threshold in the coming years. We have not seen NATO stronger, NATO working closer together, NATO speaking together. Now, I know that the former President thought that NATO had outlived its usefulness and that we should not be a part of it. This amendment would lend itself to that type of mentality. We know that the strength of NATO is its unity. We know that what Mr. Putin was after was to divide NATO. We don't need to utilize any language or have any language that would accelerate that thought. What we need to do is to make sure that we continue with the spirit of what took place at the NATO summit. The language of this amendment seeks to create disunity at a time when NATO's unity is being actively tested by Vladimir Putin. So, no, we should not agree to denounce our allies in the NDAA, as this amendment does. We should not look to reignite some of the disunity and disruption that previous America First policies promoted. The Acting CHAIR.…”