Ron Johnson

This is a pretty perplexing case.

I think there is a desire to solve that problem, which would certainly help in terms of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Balancing this delicate relationship will require a deft touch from our Ambassador in Baku.

Azerbaijan became an important U.S. partner in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Strengthening our economic and political ties with Reykjavik and reinvesting in our longstanding defense partnership should be top foreign policy priorities.

Iceland has been a U.S. ally for almost 70 years.

I just want to follow-up a little more in terms of Kosovo.

Helping the Government and people of Kosovo to strengthen rule of law, to counter corruption is so important to us.

They really do need to proceed economically.

The table stakes is you need security. But that is not only national security, but you need the economic security.

The relationship, the alliances, are strong, they will remain strong as far as the eye can see from our standpoint.

I want to thank the nominees for your willingness to serve.

We want to have the most advantageous economic and political outcomes for our own nation.

I do think energy security for Europe is a top priority.

Senator Johnson. So as Senator Murphy--and I do not want to speak for the Senator, but as we have traveled around Europe, it is the same story: the propaganda, the disinformation, the destabilizing efforts, the invasion of Georgia, Crimea…

I think that the most powerful countermeasure we have against Russian disinformation and propaganda efforts is exactly what you were doing and what I think the National Endowment for Democracy has done from its beginning, inspired by…

So I think Russia is still preoccupied with military prowess and is willing to sacrifice far too much to subsidize energy exports to use as a tool of intimidation, and they just have the mindset, unfortunately, that still is closer to the…

It is a tragedy of historic and global proportions that Russia did not continue down the path begun by Boris Yeltsin and Boris Nemtsov.

It is amazing if you are a monopolist and all of a sudden you even have potential competition, how you might start modifying your behavior.

We have got to block Nord Stream 2 because that is going to be totally counter to what our efforts really need to be long-term

If you want a safe and secure Europe, if we want to help out Ukraine, we need to get real here

So you think that is the top one, legacy regulatory impediments.

What is the stumbling block? I am not a real good diplomat here.

I think the country that could do the most to stop this project is Germany.

I think there is a fairly broad political consensus in the EU as a set of institutions to move against Nord Stream 2