Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, first let me thank Senator McCain for his strong leadership on this issue and so many issues that deal with U.S. national security. I am also pleased to hear from Senator Shaheen, who has been one of the great leaders in the Senate on our European transatlantic relations, and I know how strongly she feels.
This is not a controversial issue among the Members of the Senate or the Congress. As Senator McCain has pointed out, 25 of the 28 nations have already ratified Montenegro's accession into NATO. It requires all 28. We should be first, not the last. We should get this done. It should have been done before now.
The point that Senator McCain made I have to underscore because we know about Russia's engagement here in the United States in our election. Well, let me tell you something. As to what Montenegro experienced during their parliamentary elections, where Russia put money into that country and tried to do violence in order to prevent their Parliament from ratifying the accession into NATO, we have to stand up against that type of bullying by Russia, that interference by
Russia.
I t is in the United States' national security interests that we ratify Montenegro's accession into NATO as soon as possible. I hope we can do it yet today.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am happy to join my colleagues, Senator McCain and Senator Cardin, in urging the Senate to approve Montenegro's accession into NATO. It is long overdue, as they have both said. This is something that has been approved by the Foreign Relations
Committee not once but twice--last year in the last Congress and again in January of this year.
My colleagues here who
have been such great leaders on the importance of responding to Russia's
actions, of addressing their interference in our elections here in America, but
also of addressing what they are doing in Europe, have said it very eloquently.
When we were in Munich for the security conference a couple of weeks ago, Senator McCain and I and the congressional delegation that was there heard from Montenegrin Prime Minister Djukanovic, who talked about what he experienced from the Russians and about the Russian
effort to overthrow his government, a duly elected democracy.
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