Title: A resolution emphasizing the importance of meeting NATO spending commitments.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Reaffirms the commitment of the United States to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the foundation of transatlantic security and defense.
Encourages all NATO countries to fulfill their defense commitments as agreed upon at the NATO 2014 Wales Summit.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 570 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 570

    Emphasizing the importance of meeting NATO spending commitments.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 10, 2018

Mr. Perdue (for himself, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Inhofe, and Mr. 
  Lee) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
    Emphasizing the importance of meeting NATO spending commitments.

Whereas, for over six decades, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has 
        been a successful intergovernmental political and military alliance;
Whereas NATO's collective defense serves as a deterrent against aggression from 
        adversaries and external security threats;
Whereas NATO strengthens the security of the United States by utilizing an 
        integrated military coalition;
Whereas Article 3 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that ``in order more 
        effectively to achieve the objectives of this Treaty, the Parties, 
        separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help 
        and mutual aid, will maintain and develop their individual and 
        collective capacity to resist armed attack'';
Whereas, since the formation of NATO, the United States has negotiated with NATO 
        allies over fair and equitable burden sharing;
Whereas, in 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower invited European NATO allies to 
        increase their contribution in defense spending, pointing out that the 
        ``American well had run dry'';
Whereas, at a 1963 National Security Council meeting, President John F. Kennedy 
        stated that ``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'';
Whereas President Richard Nixon's Second Annual Report to the Congress on United 
        States Foreign Policy stated, ``The emphasis is no longer on their 
        sharing the cost of America's military commitment to Europe--although 
        financial arrangements may play a part--but on their providing the 
        national forces needed in conjunction with ours in support of an 
        effective common strategy.'';
Whereas the first NATO defense-spending target was issued in the 1977 NATO 
        Ministerial Guidance, where NATO allies agreed to increase defense 
        spending by 3 percent annually to address the substantially larger 
        defense resource allocations of the Soviet Union;
Whereas, during the 1980s, the United States drastically increased its defense 
        spending to combat threats posed by the Soviet Union, causing its share 
        of total NATO defense spending to rise dramatically, while at the same 
        time, NATO allies failed to meet the 1977 spending target;
Whereas the National Defense Authorization Act, 1985 (Public Law 98-525) 
        included a sense of Congress that the President should ``call on the 
        pertinent members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to meet or 
        exceed their pledges for an annual increase in defense spending'';
Whereas, in the 1988 NATO Summit Declaration, NATO allies reaffirmed their 
        ``willingness to share fairly the risks, burdens and responsibilities as 
        well as the benefits of our common efforts'';
Whereas, in 1990, as the Soviet Union was trending towards collapse, NATO 
        defense ministers agreed to drop the 3-percent annual increase policy, 
        as allies looked to ``reap the benefits of the greatly improved climate 
        in East-West relations'';
Whereas, while defense spending among all NATO allies decreased throughout the 
        1990s, conflicts in Bosnia, and later in Kosovo, clearly illustrated 
        that European NATO allies severely lacked key military capabilities, 
        causing British Prime Minister Tony Blair to state, ``If Europe wants 
        the United States to maintain its commitment to Europe, Europe must 
        share more of the burden of defending the West's security interests.'';
Whereas, at the 2002 NATO Prague Summit, NATO allies entered into a nonbinding 
        agreement to raise defense spending to 2 percent of their gross domestic 
        product (GDP) in order to meet the goals set out in the Prague 
        Capabilities Commitment;
Whereas, before the 2006 NATO Riga Summit, United States Ambassador to NATO 
        Victoria Nuland called the 2-percent metric the ``unofficial floor'' on 
        defense spending in NATO;
Whereas, at the 2006 NATO Riga Summit, NATO allies declared that ``we encourage 
        nations whose defense spending is declining to halt that decline and to 
        aim to increase defense spending in real terms'';
Whereas, at the 2008 NATO Bucharest Summit, NATO allies reaffirmed their 
        defense-spending goal;
Whereas, in 2011, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, ``The blunt reality is 
        that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. 
        Congress--and in the American body politic writ large--to expend 
        increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently 
        unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary 
        changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense.'';
Whereas, in 2014 at the NATO Wales Summit, NATO members officially declared to 
        increase their defense spending to 2 percent of their gross domestic 
        product by 2024;
Whereas the Wales Summit Declaration stated that ``[a]llies currently meeting 
        the NATO guideline to spend a minimum of 2% of their Gross Domestic 
        Product (GDP) on defense will aim to continue to do so'' and continued, 
        ``Allies whose current proportion of GDP spent on defense is below this 
        level will: halt any decline in defense expenditure; aim to increase 
        defense expenditure in real terms as GDP grows; aim to move towards the 
        2% guideline within a decade with a view to meeting their NATO 
        Capability Targets and filling NATO's capability shortfalls.'';
Whereas, for the first time since 1990, there have been three consecutive years 
        of increases in NATO defense spending;
Whereas, since the end of 2014, defense expenditures by NATO Europe and Canada 
        have risen by $28,000,000,000, representing a 10-percent increase;
Whereas, in 2014, only three NATO allies met the 2-percent spending target, 
        while NATO expects eight allies to meet the target in 2018, and 15 
        allies to reach the target by 2024;
Whereas, while the 2-percent defense-spending target is an important measure of 
        allies' commitment to NATO, it is imperative that defense expenditures 
        are both interoperable with, and strengthen, NATO's critical military 
        capabilities;
Whereas Russia fundamentally challenges the peaceful world order that NATO has 
        sought to foster and aspires to extend as it continues its illegal 
        occupation of territory in Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia; and
Whereas strengthening NATO's capabilities is critical to the future of the 
        alliance to deter an increasingly aggressive Russia to NATO's east, the 
        threat posed by ISIS, and instability to NATO's south, as well as 
        emerging security challenges, including terrorism and cybersecurity: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) reaffirms the commitment of the United States to the 
        North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the foundation of 
        transatlantic security and defense;
            (2) encourages all member countries of the North Atlantic 
        Treaty Organization to fulfill their commitments to levels and 
        composition of defense expenditures as agreed upon at the NATO 
        2014 Wales Summit;
            (3) calls on NATO allies to finance, equip, and train their 
        armed forces to achieve interoperability and fulfill their 
        national and regional security interests; and
            (4) recognizes NATO allies who meet their defense spending 
        commitments or are otherwise providing adequately for their 
        national and regional security interests.
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