Foreign Digest: NATO and the United States versus Russian Aggression against Ukraine

NATO Accepts Swedish Membership and Ukrainian Application: The annual summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the most successful defense pact in history, was highly fruitful, especially because of the continued American leadership of the alliance. Sweden’s membership was finally accepted by Turkey and Hungary’s leaders, pending their parliament’s approvals. As I have posted, Sweden, like Finland, abandoned its longstanding neutrality because of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Turkey had blocked Swedish membership over the Kurds, who are a significant ethnic minority in Turkey who aspire for more autonomy, who have settled there. As part of the deal, the United States would sell fighter jets and parts to Turkey and support Turkish membership in the European Union, but Turkey’s membership in the EU is not a condition of Sweden’s NATO adhesion. For Ukraine, NATO decided not to require the usual Membership Action Plan, but instead formed a joint NATO-Ukrainian council. The U.S. and NATO assure Ukrainian membership in the transatlantic alliance after the Russian invasion. Ukraine, which has been taking the required steps to strengthen its representative government and liberty and against corruption, is engaged in a counteroffensive to wrest control of its sovereign territory back from the Russian Federation that had recognized it as Ukrainian territory. NATO has been aiding Ukraine because Russian aggression is a direct threat against its members. United States Aid to Ukraine: Most Republicans in the United States House of Representatives voted against isolationist pro-Russian Trumpist amendments to the defense authorization bill from GOP members that would have reduced or eliminated security aid to Ukraine against aggression by the Russian Federation. Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, an ex-Soviet intelligence officer who is trying to restore the Soviet Union, invaded the former Soviet Republic in 2014 to seize part of Ukrainian territory and launched a full-scale invasion last year. The amendment to eliminate all aid received 70 votes out of the 219-vote Republican majority and the one to reduce it 89. All Democrats voted against both amendments. There were other amendments from the pro-Putin wing to undermine the defense against aggression that were also defeated. The House Republican Caucus thus salvaged the Grand Old Party’s pro-security reputation, as they framed the military aid to Ukraine as a battle of the free world versus the authoritarian aggressor States, but the relatively high vote totals against defending independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity by the self-described “nationalists” and was nevertheless disturbing and reflects the continued influence, not only of Russian propaganda over “conservatives,” but of the pro-Putin Donald Trump over his party.