McConnell On Facing Global Challenges: NATO “Only As Strong As Its Weakest Link”
‘[T]he most successful military alliance in human history didn’t get this way by letting dictators and theocrats eat our lunch. China hawks should be the first to discourage the expansion of PRC tools like Huawei on European soil. Friends of Israel should have no time for myths of constructive engagement with an Iranian regime that underwrites the slaughter of Jews. NATO members ought to know better - and many do. But clearly, we have a lot of work still ahead…’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding NATO:
“As I said yesterday, NATO members have taken some promising steps toward making the alliance fit for purpose. But now is not the time to get complacent.
“The threats we face are grave and growing. How we meet them will determine the future of the order that has underpinned the free world’s peace and prosperity for decades.
“Our greatest adversaries aren’t beating around the bush. PRC officials are stepping up their pressure against Taiwan. Standing on NATO soil, China’s ambassador to France suggested recently that China’s civil war ‘has not yet ended’ and threatened that the mainland could expel the ‘rebel regime’ in Taiwan ‘at any time’.
“This comes from the same revisionist power that has succeeded for too long in infiltrating our economies, supply chains, and critical infrastructure with the promise of quick investments and easy profits.
“Not long ago, it was America falling prey to this alluring promise. But it’s past time for European allies to learn from our experience.
“And it’s time for America to correct our lingering mistakes, as well. We cannot continue to stand by as Chinese military modernization outpaces our own. We cannot abide defense budget requests that fail to even keep pace with inflation.
“The cold truth for all of us is this: Those who fail to take hard power seriously will learn that fighting wars is vastly more expensive than deterring them.
“Just consider the neo-Soviet imperialist with whom the PRC has struck up an ‘unlimited partnership’. The West’s weakness and hesitation didn’t just fail to deter Putin’s escalation in Ukraine. It invited a longer, costlier, and bloodier conflict.
“And Putin’s brutal aggression: His reckless nuclear saber-rattling…
“His militarization of space…
“His weaponization of energy…
“His repression of Christians at home and in occupied Ukraine…
“His cold-blooded targeting of civilians, including a missile strike on Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital earlier this week…
“All of this is facilitated by China’s support.
“Of course, firmly knit into this same web of aggression is Iran, perhaps the most notorious enabler of terrorist child murder in the world…
“The architect of slaughter across the Middle East…
“The mastermind of Houthi threats to international trade…
“And the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism.
“Iran continues to make determined progress toward a nuclear weapons capability.
“As the Biden Administration’s Director of National Intelligence acknowledged just yesterday, the regime is also stoking aggressive and anti-Semitic demonstrations on our soil, U.S. soil, against Israel’s response to the horrific attacks that Tehran enabled.
“Our European allies, of course, are reckoning with a persistent strain of anti-Semitism in their own politics. Serious allies ought to dispense with any wishful thinking about the prospects of rapprochement under Iran’s newest president.
“Make no mistake: the trans-Atlantic alliance is growing stronger, larger, and more committed to the shared responsibilities of collective defense. And on the whole, we’re staring down these connected threats with clearer eyes.
“But the alliance is only as strong as its weakest link. And today, it almost appears that one weak link in NATO’s chain wants to break it.
“Last week, without coordinating with Ukraine, NATO, or the EU, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban showed up in Moscow on a self-aggrandizing ‘peace mission’, giving Putin a chance to counterbalance the diplomatic pressure he is otherwise feeling. Then, he took to the pages of Newsweek to accuse the alliance of ‘seeking conflict’ rather than resolving it.
“How insidious, Mr. President. Hungary knows what Soviet repression feels like. How its leader could mistake NATO’s efforts to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression for ‘the pursuit of war’ is beyond me.
“Neither Ukraine nor NATO provoked Russia into invading Ukraine in 2014. Neither Ukraine nor NATO provoked Russia into escalating its conflict in 2022. As I’ve said, it was the West’s failure to meet Russian aggression with strength that emboldened Putin.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Orban’s curious soft spot for authoritarians isn’t limited to the aggressor that, ironically, drove Hungary to join NATO in the first place. This week, he also found time to visit Beijing to reinforce what both Hungary and the PRC call ‘an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership’.
“Republicans in Washington who fashion themselves both ‘national conservatives’ and China hawks should pay more attention to Mr. Orban’s actions and ask themselves if they are consistent with America’s interests.
“It is certainly difficult to explain away the data. Three years ago, Hungary accounted for less than 1% of Chinese investment in Europe. Last year, it received more than 44%.
“With an economy smaller than Kentucky’s, Hungary attracted more Chinese foreign direct investment than Europe’s top three economies combined. I thought America and our allies were supposed to be reducing our reliance on the PRC.
“Money talks, so perhaps it’s not surprising that Mr. Orban finds time to confer with President Xi. But his government has also gone out of its way to slow-walk European assistance to Ukraine. And it’s chased deeper trade ties with Iran.
“Budapest publicized a call between Hungary’s foreign minister and his new Iranian counterpart with not a word of criticism of Tehran’s support for terrorism, malign activities across the Middle East, or support to Russia’s war of aggression.
“So much for Orban’s pursuit of peace.
“[T]he most successful military alliance in human history didn’t get this way by letting dictators and theocrats eat our lunch.
“China hawks should be the first to discourage the expansion of PRC tools like Huawei on European soil. Friends of Israel should have no time for myths of constructive engagement with an Iranian regime that underwrites the slaughter of Jews.
“NATO members ought to know better – and many do. But clearly, we have a lot of work still ahead of us.”
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Related Issues: China, NATO, Ukraine
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