{"id":1583478,"date":"2022-08-01T18:11:21","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T22:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1583478"},"modified":"2022-08-01T18:11:27","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T22:11:27","slug":"sen-josh-hawley-comes-out-against-nato-expansion-says-us-must-make-tough-choices-to-combat-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-josh-hawley-comes-out-against-nato-expansion-says-us-must-make-tough-choices-to-combat-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Josh Hawley Comes Out Against NATO Expansion, Says US Must \u2018Make Tough Choices\u2019 To Combat China"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsen-josh-hawley-comes-out-against-nato-expansion-says-us-must-make-tough-choices-to-combat-china%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1583478&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/josh-hawley-scaled-e1659387328602.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley became the first senator to oppose adding Sweden and Finland to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), writing in an op-ed that doing so would prevent the U.S. from effectively combating China.<\/p>\n<p>Sweden and Finland both <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/05\/12\/finland-intends-join-nato-without-delay-russia-warning\/\">announced<\/a> in May that they would seek to join the 73-year-old defense organization in the aftermath of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. NATO formally invited the two previously neutral nations into the alliance in\u00a0late June, after Turkey <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/06\/29\/nato-invites-sweden-finland-join-turkey-ukraine-russia-summit\/\">dropped<\/a> its objection to their joining. The Biden administration has <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/05\/18\/us-warning-russia-finland-sweden-nato\/\">promised<\/a> to \u201csend a very clear message\u201d if Russia attempts to prevent the two countries from joining, with National security adviser Jake Sullivan saying that the U.S. \u201cwill not tolerate any aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it comes to Chinese imperialism, the American people should know the truth: the United States is not ready to resist it. Expanding American security commitments in Europe now would only make that problem worse\u2014and America, less safe,\u201d Hawley wrote Monday in <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/feature\/why-i-won%E2%80%99t-vote-add-sweden-and-finland-nato-203925\">The National Interest<\/a>. \u201cConfronting this threat will force us to make tough choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hawley described the two countries\u2019 desire to join NATO as \u201ctotally understandable.\u201d Nevertheless, he added, \u201cthe United States cannot defeat China and Russia in two major wars at the same time,\u201d a situation made more likely by expansion.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Why I Won\u2019t Vote to Add Sweden and Finland to NATO <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YPUvgYz8Xr\">https:\/\/t.co\/YPUvgYz8Xr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawleyMO\/status\/1554103358276911104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 1, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 21-0 June 14 to support a resolution approving Sweden and Finland\u2019s joining, with Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-nato-rand-paul-sweden-finland-c00f0ea147499f7ddc92cecfdf2b9a76\">voting<\/a> \u201cpresent.\u201d Paul previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.senate.gov\/legislative\/LIS\/roll_call_votes\/vote1161\/vote_116_1_00327.htm\">voted<\/a> against North Macedonia\u2019s entrance into NATO in 2019, a move Hawley supported. <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/05\/13\/recipe-for-disaster-rand-paul-defends-blocking-ukraine-military-aid-package-takes-shot-at-john-mccain\/\"><strong>(RELATED: \u2018Recipe For Disaster\u2019: Rand Paul Defends Blocking Ukraine Military Aid Package, Takes Shot At John McCain)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The resolution <a href=\"https:\/\/clerk.house.gov\/Votes\/2022364\">passed<\/a> the House of Representatives 394-18 on July 18. Treaties must be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.senate.gov\/about\/powers-procedures\/treaties.htm\">approved<\/a> by two-thirds of the Senate to go into effect.<\/p>\n<p>Hawley pointed to NATO guidelines <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2019\/12\/03\/donald-trump-payment-plan-justin-trudeau-delinquent-defense\/\">requiring<\/a> that member countries contribute at least two percent of their gross domestic product to defense spending. Sweden does not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/swedens-defence-budget-could-reach-2-gdp-2028-military-says-2022-04-11\/\">expect<\/a> its defense spending to reach two percent of GDP until 2028, and Finland\u2019s defense spending <a href=\"https:\/\/warontherocks.com\/2022\/05\/what-would-finland-bring-to-the-table-for-nato\/\">reached<\/a> two percent for the first time in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the event of a future conflict in Europe, U.S. forces would almost certainly be called in to defend both countries,\u201d Hawley wrote. \u201cU.S. resources are not unlimited. Already we spend the better part of a trillion dollars a year on defense. And our manpower is already stretched thin across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley became the first senator to oppose adding Sweden and Finland to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), writing in an op-ed that doing so would<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1583478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1583478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1583478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1583478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1583478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}