The Senate votes overwhelmingly to add Sweden and Finland to NATO
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a treaty that would expand NATO to include Finland and Sweden, with Republicans and Democrats linking arms to pave the way for one of the most significant expansions of the alliance in decades amid Russia’s continued assault on Ukraine.
The vote was 95 to 1, with only Sen. Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, opposing the move. The lopsided number, which far exceeded the two-thirds support needed to approve a treaty, underscored the bipartisan appetite for a more muscular Western military alliance even amid threats from Russian officials that Sweden and Finland would face retaliation if they joined NATO.
“The membership of Finland and Sweden will further strengthen NATO, and is all the more urgent in view of Russian aggression, in view of Putin’s immoral and unjustified war in Ukraine,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader. “Putin is strengthening the NATO alliance, and nothing shows that better” than the Senate’s resounding approval of the pact.
All 30 current members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization must ratify the accession of the two countries. Twenty two countries has already done so, but as recently as two weeks ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to block the membership bids of Finland and Sweden, which would prolong the process.
Still, the approval by the United States is a crucial step, and the vote was a triumph for President Biden. It was a vindication of his push to rally Western allies to confront Putin’s brutal campaign in Ukraine and a step toward fulfilling his promise as a presidential candidate to restore the alliances badly frayed in the Trump era and restore America’s role in protecting democracy around about the world.
Democrats praised Sweden and Finland as nations with robust militaries and argued that joining NATO would reduce the burden on the United States and the broader alliance.
“More than ever, it is crystal clear that NATO plays a critical role in the security of the United States and as a bulwark to protect peace and democracies around the world,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Seventy years ago, democratic nations in Europe and the United States joined together to defend the freedom, liberty and individual rights of their citizens from the threat of a militarized Soviet Union,” Menendez continued. “Now – as then – the defensive alliance serves as a bulwark of stability and the rule of law for the people of its member states.”
The vote margin also reflected a striking rejection by Republicans of the “America First” philosophy espoused by President Donald J. Trump, who has openly disdained NATO and US commitments to international organizations.
Some Senate Republicans have watched with concern as a growing number of their colleagues, seeking to emulate Trump and appeal to his supporters, have taken anti-interventionist positions at odds with their party’s traditional hawkish stance. Even while Trump occupied the White House, foreign policy was one of the few areas where Republicans dared to challenge him.
The overwhelming rally on Wednesday – with just one dropout – was one of the most powerful rejections yet of the isolationist worldview. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, was present.
Few Republicans expressed misgivings about the idea of entering into a mutual defense pact with a country that shares a 500-mile border with Russia, arguing instead that it would strengthen the alliance.
The vote came a day after House Republicans rallied around Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. – one of their bitterest political opponents – for defying Chinese government warnings and traveling to Taiwan. That support, and the resounding vote Wednesday, was a stark contrast to the pitched battles Republicans have waged with Democrats over domestic policy.
It also marked the success of a concerted effort by Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, who has long pushed against the anti-interventionist strain in his party but in recent months has launched a particularly aggressive effort to publicly rally support for the kind of independent military presence abroad that was once seen as republican orthodoxy.
Determined to show the world that Trump’s views on military aid and alliances did not hold sway with Senate Republicans, the Republican leader traveled in May to Ukraine, Sweden and Finland.
Mr. McConnell argued that both Sweden and Finland could shoulder their share of the defense burden, in an effort to counter concerns often raised by conservatives about adding to the alliance. And he had told his members that “even closer cooperation” with the two nations would help the United States counter China, another argument invoked by Republicans who argued that the United States must shift its defense resources away from Europe and toward Asia.
“Their accession will make NATO stronger and America safer,” McConnell said in a speech from the Senate floor on Wednesday. “If any senator finds a defensible excuse to vote no, I wish them well.”
Only Mr Hawley, who is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2024, voted against the treaty, write in an opinion article that “NATO expansion would almost certainly mean more US forces in Europe in the long term.”
“Faced with this harsh reality, we have to choose,” Hawley said. “We need to do less in Europe (and elsewhere) to prioritize China and Asia.”
The four other Republican senators widely believed to harbor presidential aspirations — Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida — all voted in favor of the expansion.
Mr. Cruz, in a brief interview, called NATO “the most successful military alliance in modern history” and said “bringing in serious additional military capability” would only strengthen it.
And Mr. Cotton took to the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon before the vote to make a point-by-point argument against the treaty’s opponents, casting them as “alarmist and backward.”
“Some critics say America shouldn’t promise to protect countries halfway around the world,” Cotton said. “But these critics are seven decades too late. We are already treaty-bound to defend more than two dozen nations in Europe.”
The “real question today,” he said, “is whether adding two capable and strong nations to our mutual defense pact will make us stronger or weaker.”
Only the Senate has the power to consider and approve treaties. Last month, in a show of solidarity, the House passed a non-binding resolution supporting Finland and Sweden joining NATO, by 394 to 18 votes.