In the more than a hundred days since Russia violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and launched an unprovoked, premeditated invasion, the world has witnessed a courageous display of defiance by the Ukrainian people. Their determination to defend their citizens, territorial integrity and democratic values ​​have rallied the international community to Ukraine’s side. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions, and his decision to further invade the country, is not just an attack on Ukraine, but a broader attack on democracies around the world.

An important part of Putin’s playbook is to sow chaos and division both within and between nations. His predictable and original playbook has been detrimental to his military campaign in Ukraine: He faces a country with a violent and entrenched national identity; a united international community; the most powerful iteration of NATO in its more than seventy years of existence; and a United States whose leaders—Democrats and Republicans—are working in lockstep to lead the global response to his assault on our rules-based order.

As co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, we were proud to re-establish this coalition of senators, equally composed of Democrats and Republicans, to engage lawmakers outside of national security committees in the transatlantic alliance. Four years ago we recreated this group with an expanded mission. We did so in response to Putin’s increasing aggression against the US, Europe and democracies around the world and to counter the dangerous trend of societies turning away from democracy and sliding towards authoritarianism.

Our bipartisan work in support of NATO has been fundamental in the US Senate as we respond to the crisis in Ukraine. We have collaborated on several pieces of legislation that were quickly signed into law to provide military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, to expedite the delivery of materials to the country, and to strengthen diplomatic channels within the Alliance and with countries aspiring to join NATO and key regional actors. And we’ve accomplished all of this while working closely with the Biden administration. Although there are policies where we differ, we are steadfast in the defense of our democracy and will refuse Putin any opportunity to divide our nation or transatlantic unity. That is exactly the message we shared during our two-part delegation to the NATO summit in Madrid in June.

We led a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chris Coons (D-DE), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Deb Fischer (R-NE), and Joni Ernst (R-IA) to NATO -summit in 2022, as well as to Finland and Sweden. Our mission was clear: to convey bipartisan resolve in support of the alliance and the US commitment to find a way forward for Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO. We attended many bilateral meetings with our partners in Helsinki and Stockholm before traveling to Madrid, and we were delighted with the progress made. By the time we landed in Madrid, news had spread of the successful agreement that resulted in Turkey lifting its hold on Finland and Sweden’s applications and paving the way for their joining the alliance.

We built on this progress with our transatlantic partners and underscored the administration’s message of support for the alliance. From bilateral meetings with long-standing, trusted allies like Germany and Britain to discussions with NATO aspirant nations like Georgia, the message was the same: We are all on the same page, and U.S. leadership must continue, unhindered, to energize our allies as we face both short-term and long-term challenges.

Today the challenge is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but how we react today affects what we will be confronted with tomorrow. We must be ready to address Russian and Chinese ambitions in the Arctic, and China’s increased aggression in the Pacific, which is why historic participation by Indo-Pacific countries, such as Japan and South Korea, was a welcome focus of the summit. It is for these reasons and many more that Sweden’s and Finland’s rapid accession to NATO is so important – and the transatlantic alliance is so crucial to US security and global stability. At the summit, we endorsed the Strategic Concept 2022, a NATO mission that describes our security environment and the urgency of providing for our collective defense. This initiative not only strengthens the transatlantic community, but is also in line with the United States’ own view of national security.

The US Senate recently took a significant step forward in strengthening the transatlantic alliance when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted on a resolution to ratify Finland’s and Sweden’s application to join NATO. This historic expansion is a testament to the global commitment to oppose Putin’s destabilizing actions that threaten our rules-based order. It is critical that the full Senate quickly follows this week with a vote to approve the countries’ membership bids, which we have made clear to Senate leadership.

In May, we led a letter to President Joe Biden along with eighty senators pledging to help ensure that the Senate’s swift action sends a strong message of support to our transatlantic allies. As we have seen with Putin’s ongoing and bloody military campaign in Ukraine, time is of the essence. We will not fall prey to his tiresome tactics that seek to divide us. Indeed, if there is one thing that Putin has achieved since creating this crisis, it is a NATO that is more united than ever before. We urge our Senate colleagues to support the accession of Finland and Sweden and to be resolute in support of the Alliance, our rules-based order and liberal democracies worldwide.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is co-chair of the Senate NATO Observer Group.

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) is co-chair of the Senate NATO Observer Group.

Further reading

Image: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederisksen, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir meet at the recent NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 29, 2022. Photo by Rita Franca/ NurPhoto/REUTERS