Sen. Thom Tillis says NATO vote shows Senate’s ‘full confidence’ in Finland, Sweden

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said he hopes that a 95-1 vote Wednesday night to expand NATO shows countries around the world that the U.S. Senate has “full confidence” in Finland and Sweden.

The two Nordic countries have recently sought entry into the national intergovernmental organization as a bulwark against Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February.

“We welcome them readily and we look forward to their accession, and this step in ratifying the treaty is a great step,” Tillis said on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, was the only member against the expansion. He was joined by the 18 Republicans in the House, including North Carolina’s Madison Cawthorn and Dan Bishop, who voted against the expansion last month.

Hawley said the expansion would wear thin the United States’ security commitments in Europe when it needs to be focused on China. His position drew criticism from opponents and his own party.

Tillis traveled in June with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and a group of Senators to Helsinki and Stockholm before attending the NATO Summit in Madrid to show bipartisan support for finding a path forward for Finland and Sweden to join NATO.

The countries asked to join following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for his military to invade Ukraine, a war that has continued ever since.

Tillis and Shaheen co-chair the Senate NATO Observer Group, which relaunched several years ago as Russia’s threat against the United States intensified.

Tillis said on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon that he came from a family of six siblings, and one of his siblings is not ideologically aligned, but “when our family gets threatened, there is no difference between us.”

“That’s what Vladimir Putin saw on Feb. 24,” Tillis said. “He saw the family of nations in NATO come together like he couldn’t have imagined. And he saw two nations, Finland and Sweden, after decades of being non-aligned, saying enough is enough.”

Tillis said Finland brings to NATO a good ground force and Sweden its Navy. Finland has already invested 2% of its gross domestic product in defense spending, according to Tillis, and he believes Sweden will meet that goal by the end of 2027.

He said Finland has ordered 64 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

“Why is that extraordinary?” Tillis said. “Finland has about half the population of the state of North Carolina, about five and a half million people. They have on orders 64 Joint Strike Fighters. We have fewer than 200 on full operation here in the United States. If we on a per capita basis were to have as many Joint Strike Fighters as Finland intends to have, we would need more than 4,000.”

Tillis also spoke about Sweden’s attributes.

He said the country’s industrial base is extraordinary; they have advanced fighter and submarine technology and an industrial base that can mobilize. He added that the industrial base is already developing platforms that are NATO inter-operable.

“They’re not going to have to do some sort of NATO 101,” Tillis said. “They’re going to get to the work they’re already doing.”

Wednesday’s vote made the United States the 23rd country to sign off on the expansion. President Joe Biden still needs to sign off on the decision to make it official. He is expected to do so quickly.

Both countries need all 30 member nations of NATO to sign off on the expansion.