Nato
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, one, I want to associate myself with the comments of Senator Collins from Maine. That was a great story about why we should all be happy today with Finland and Sweden and why this makes a lot of sense.
There is one person I want to thank whom I don't usually give a big shout-out to: President Putin from Russia. Without you, we wouldn't be here. You have done more to strengthen NATO than any speech I could ever hope to give.
John McCain, I wish you were alive today to celebrate because what we have been able to accomplish here through Putin's invasion of Ukraine is to remind everybody in the world, when it comes to bullies, you better stand up to them before it is too late. So our friends in Finland and Sweden have decided to join NATO. That is a good thing.
But let me put Ukraine in perspective right quick. Our military leaders and our experts told us: After the invasion, 4 days, they would be in Kyiv. Well, they miscalculated. They overestimated the capabilities of the Russians, and they certainly undercalculated the resolve of the Ukrainian people.
We are 160 days into this fight. Ukraine is still standing, bloodied but unbowed; NATO is bigger; crippling sanctions on the Russian economy; the ICC is investigating war crimes committed by Putin and his cronies. You have 100 U.S. Senators--we can't agree on Sunday being a day off--have agreed that Russia should be a State sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law.
So 160 days into this fight, I am telling you right now, things are looking pretty good for the good guys. And I say that knowing how much suffering has gone on in the Ukraine. But today, we are here to admit two new members of NATO.
NATO has been the strongest force for good, I think, on the planet since 1949. It is a group of countries organized around democratic concepts that have pledged to one another mutual defense--an attack on one is an attack on all. It has deterred war. It has been a stabilizing influence in Europe since the end of World War II. And along comes Putin.
So NATO today is going to be bigger than it was before the invasion. NATO today is going to have more military resources than before the invasion by Russia into Ukraine.
Again, I want to thank President Putin. You have done something for the democratic world that we have not been able to do for ourselves.
To NATO, as an organization, keep your eye on the ball; pay your 2 percent.
To my friends who suggest that expanding NATO makes us weaker against China, what movie are you watching? How can you believe for one moment abandoning Ukraine or showing less of a commitment to European stability will make China more afraid of us and less likely to invade Taiwan?
The best thing we could do right now as a world--particularly, the democratic world--is to become stronger in the face of aggression, to make NATO bigger. And we are going to accomplish that in a few minutes.
To all my colleagues who have come down here and spoken on behalf of the admission of these two countries, God bless you; you are on the right side of history.
One regret I do have is my great friend Senator McCain could not see today come about because he would be exceedingly pleased that the democratic world has rallied in the face of the aggression by Putin.
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