Issues of the Day

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, on a cold Tuesday in January, an irritated President met with his National Security Council. During the meeting, the President was outspoken, and complained, We cannot continue to pay for the military protection of Europe while the NATO states are not paying their fair share and living off the fat of the land. We have been very generous to Europe, and now it is time for us to look out for ourselves.

Mr. Speaker, that quote urging Europeans to pay their fair share in their own defense by way of their responsibility to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was not made by President Trump, it was not made by President Obama, or even George W. Bush. Mr. Speaker, that irritated President was John F. Kennedy.

We are now nearly 60 years after that meeting, and 30 years following the reunification of Germany and the collapse of the USSR. Yet, the debate continues.

Recently, NATO held a 2-day video conference with the theme of increasing NATO's funding for our core deterrence and defense activities. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the assembled allies that spending more together would demonstrate the strength of our commitment to Article 5, our promise to each other. And it would contribute to fairer burden sharing. Sound familiar?

When then-candidate Donald Trump became President, only three of the then 28 countries were spending the agreed upon guideline figure of 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.

With President Trump's urging, today, 7 countries out of the now 30 NATO allies are meeting this important benchmark. The United States is joined by its longtime allies, Great Britain and Greece. Yet the only other countries meeting the benchmark are countries that know well the risk of Soviet--and now Russian--threats or threats from external forces of terror. These are the formerly enslaved countries from behind the Iron Curtain: Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. As Americans, we salute their partnership, and we share in their renewed sense of freedom.

Mr. Speaker, as we in the legislative branch of this government meet and confer with our parliamentary counterparts, as well as foreign ministers and finance ministers from our NATO allies, let us urge cooperation with our promise to defend each other, but, more importantly, urge the rapid adoption to achieve that fairer burden sharing, a goal so long ago argued for by President Kennedy.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source