In a bill signing ceremony after the Senate’s approval of a resolution to add the two Nordic countries, President Biden emphasized that extending NATO flew in the face of Vladimir Putin’s hostility and promised Sweden and Finland that they would respect the standards of treaty membership.
‘Putin believed he could tear us apart… undermine our determination.’ Instead, he’s getting precisely what he didn’t want,’ Biden told an audience in the White House’s East Room on Tuesday. Putin desired the Finlandization of NATO, but received the NATOization of Finland. ‘ Last Monday, the Senate voted 95-1-1 to extend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. The vote made the United States the 23rd country to approve the proposed addendum. The consent of all 30 present NATO members is required.
Only Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri voted against admitting the two countries to the alliance. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted no on the bill.
Biden also emphasized that the two countries will satisfy NATO’s membership standards. ‘We are certain that they will fulfill every NATO criterion.’
NATO’s mandate that member countries spend at least 2% of their GDP on military is a major sticking point.
Along with the NATO resolution, the Senate approved an amendment by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, repeating the alliance’s mandate that countries spend 2% on defense.
Former President Trump was a vocal opponent of NATO, an alliance that went counter to his ‘America First’ platform. He dubbed the 30-member bloc “obsolete,” and regularly criticized other countries of failing to pay their fair share of military spending. He apparently wanted the US to leave NATO at one time.
According to a March report from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, just eight of NATO’s 30 member countries presently fulfill the two percent target: the United Kingdom, Greece, Croatia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Hawley, who opposed the resolution, has long advocated for decreasing force numbers in Europe in order to pivot to an Asia-focused policy. Paul proposed an amendment that would have underlined that NATO’s Article 5 cannot supplant Congress’ power to declare war, but it was defeated 10-87.
In an op-ed for The National Interest, Hawley claimed that the United States should prioritize the danger from China above building its relationship with European states.
‘Our foreign policy should be about safeguarding the United States, our freedom, our people, and our way of life, and I feel that extending NATO would not achieve that,’ Hawley said before the vote on the Senate floor. ‘What I am advocating for is a return to a traditional nationalist approach to foreign policy… founded in our nation’s interests and the reality of the world as it is, not how we desire it to be,’ says the author. On the Senate floor earlier Wednesday, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton took a veiled dig at Hawley.
‘How could one possibly disagree?’ Cotton inquired on the Senate floor about Sweden and Finland’s inclusion. After all, the most recent NATO members, Montenegro and North Macedonia, were both confirmed by the Senate with just two ‘no’ votes.
‘It would be unusual indeed for any senator who voted to admit Montenegro or North Macedonia to NATO to then refuse Finland and Sweden membership,’ he said.
‘I’d love to hear the justification of such an odd vote,’ Cotton added sarcastically.
Hawley voted in favor of Montenegro and North Macedonia joining the alliance in 2019.