The Senate votes to ratify NATO membership for Sweden and Finland – KION546
By Clare Foran and Ali Zaslav, CNN
The Senate voted Wednesday to approve a resolution to ratify membership for Sweden and Finland in NATO, a historic vote aimed at strengthening the defense bloc amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
NATO formalized his invitation to Sweden and Finland to join the alliance at the end of June and the decision must go to the parliaments and legislatures of the 30 member states for final ratification.
President Joe Biden sent the minutes for ratification by the Senate in July, clearing the way for the vote, which needed approval by two-thirds of the Senate to pass. The final Senate vote was 95 to 1, with GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri voting in opposition and GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voting present.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Tuesday that the vote to approve the resolution ratifying Sweden and Finland’s application to NATO would take place, saying he had invited the ambassadors from Finland and Sweden to join the audience during debate and votes.
“Our NATO alliance is the foundation that has guaranteed democracy in the Western world since the end of the Second World War. This further strengthens NATO and is especially needed in light of recent Russian aggression,” Schumer said in Senate remarks.
“When Leader McConnell and I met with the President of Finland and the Prime Minister of Sweden in May, we committed to doing this as quickly as we could and certainly before we go home for the August recess,” Schumer said.
Once the Senate approves Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession protocol, “the next step in the ratification process is for the president to sign an instrument of ratification of the treaty,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN.
“Once the president has signed an instrument of ratification, that instrument (in the case of a multilateral treaty) is deposited with the depositary of the treaty,” which in NATO’s case is the department, the spokesman said.
Those steps will not take place on the same day as the Senate approves, and the final arrangements for depositing the instrument of ratification have not yet been made, the spokesman told CNN.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in remarks on the floor Wednesday ahead of the vote, predicted it would be “as decisive as it is bipartisan.”
McConnell argued that admitting Sweden and Finland to NATO “will only strengthen the most successful military alliance in human history.”
McConnell also used his time to take aim at lawmakers who do not support the resolution.
“If any senator is looking for a defensible excuse to vote no, I wish them well,” he said. “This is a slam dunk for national security that deserves unanimous bipartisan support.”
Sweden and Finland both announced their intention to join NATO in May, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a sudden shift in attitudes to joining the bloc.
The reason most countries join NATO is because of Article 5, which stipulates that all signatories regard an attack on one member as an attack on all. Article 5 has been a cornerstone of the alliance since it was founded in 1949 as a counterweight to the Soviet Union.
Hawley explained his position on the matter in a recent article National interest with the title “Why I will not vote to add Sweden and Finland to NATO.”
“Finland and Sweden want to join the Atlanta Alliance to deter further Russian aggression in Europe,” he wrote. “That is perfectly understandable given their location and security needs. But America’s greatest foreign adversary is not looming over Europe. It is looming in Asia. I am speaking, of course, of the People’s Republic of China. And when it comes to Chinese imperialism, the American people should know the truth : The U.S. is not ready to withstand it. Expanding U.S. security commitments in Europe now would only make that problem worse — and America less safe.”
Paul similarly outlined his position in an op-ed in American conservative.
“As for Sweden and Finland, we still need serious, rational, objective debate about the costs and benefits of admitting two historically neutral nations that have such a strategic geographic position relative to Russia,” he wrote. “Before the Russian invasion, I would have said no. But in view of Russian actions, I have gone from being against their entry into NATO to being neutral on the issue and as a consequence will vote ‘present.’
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CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.