US Senate backs NATO bid of Finland, Sweden in rebuke to Russia

| | Washington
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US Senate backs NATO bid of Finland, Sweden in rebuke to Russia

Friday, 05 August 2022 | AP | Washington

US Senators have delivered near-unanimous bipartisan approval to NATO membership for Finland and Sweden, calling expansion of the Western defensive bloc a “slam-dunk” for US national security and a day of reckoning for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

Wednesday's 95-1 vote — for the candidacy of two Western European nations that, until Russia's war against Ukraine, had long avoided military alliances — took a crucial step toward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its 73-year-old pact of mutual defense among the United States and democratic allies in Europe.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited ambassadors of the two nations to the chamber gallery to witness the vote.

President Joe Biden, who has been the principal player rallying global economic and material support for Ukraine, has sought quick entry for the two previously non-militarily aligned northern European nations.

Approval from all member nations — currently, 30 — is required.

The candidacies of the two prosperous Northern European nations have won ratification from more than half of the NATO member nations in the roughly three months since the two applied.

It's a purposely rapid pace meant to send a message to Russia over its six-month-old war against Ukraine's West-looking government.

“It sends a warning shot to tyrants around the world who believe free democracies are just up for grabs,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in the Senate debate ahead of the vote.

“Russia's unprovoked invasion has changed the way we think about world security,” she added.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who visited Kyiv earlier this year, urged unanimous approval.

Speaking to the Senate, McConnell cited Finland's and Sweden's well-funded, modernizing militaries and their experience working with US forces and weapons systems, calling it a “slam-dunk for national security” of the United States.

“Their accession will make NATO stronger and America more secure. If any senator is looking for a defensible excuse to vote no, I wish them good luck,” McConnell said.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who often aligns his positions with those of the most ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump, cast the only no vote.

Hawley took the Senate floor to call European security alliances a distraction from what he called the United States' chief rival — China, not Russia.

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