Missouri’s Josh Hawley was lone senator to vote against Finland, Sweden NATO membership
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri was the lone senator Wednesday to vote against a bipartisan resolution to add Finland and Sweden to NATO.
The Senate approved the resolution 95-1 with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul voting present. The resolution, approved by the House on a vote of 394-18 last month, backs the two countries’ entrance into the military alliance originally founded in 1949 during the start of the Cold War.
Wednesday’s vote was an attempt to strengthen the military alliance amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. But Missouri’s junior senator argued that expanding NATO would increase the U.S.’s military commitments, spending and resources in Europe.
“Finland and Sweden want to expand NATO because it is in their national security interests to do so, and fair enough. The question that should properly be before us, however, is is it in the United States’ interests to do so? Because that’s what American foreign policy is supposed to be about,” Hawley said on the floor Wednesday.
He added, “Our foreign policy should be about protecting the United States, our freedom, our people, and our way of life, and expanding NATO, I believe, would not do that.”
While Hawley voted against the measure, Missouri’s other senator, retiring Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, spoke in favor of it. Blunt, who along with 81 senators called on the Biden administration in May to fast track the two countries’ applications for NATO membership, said in a floor speech Wednesday that Finland and Sweden brought “good real estate and good location” to the military alliance.
“I think it sends a signal to the world, and, hopefully, to all Americans, that not only is NATO important, but it will be stronger with Sweden and Finland than it has ever been,” he said on the floor. “And I look forward to the opportunity to cast this vote today.”
