WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Observer Group, pressed Secretary of the Army Mark Esper, nominee to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Defense, on the importance of America’s alliances and the need to strengthen NATO. In addition, Senator King questioned Secretary Esper on topics including ways to avoid miscalculated military action with Iran and the importance of monitoring the collaboration between Russia and China against U.S. interests. Senator King’s questioning came during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee to consider Secretary Esper’s nomination to serve as Secretary of Defense. 

Senator King’s exchange with Secretary Esper regarding NATO, which begins at 00:10, is included below:

Senator King: “You made a point in your opening statement that sort of jumped out at me that I hadn’t really thought about explicitly before. Our adversaries don’t have allies, we have allies. That’s one of our asymmetrical advantages that we should maintain it seems to me that you could concur, I assume.”

Secretary Esper: “Absolutely concur, and as I also note in my remarks: Good alliances are made of strong capable partners. And that’s why when I went to NATO to tell them how much I support the alliance, I remind that too that they also have Article III commitments to build their own capacity, to build their own capabilities. And that means living up to what I thought the Obama administration did a very good job at, that’s advancing the Well Summit initiative that everybody commit at least 2% GDP to defense – and we’re far away from that right now. But a successful collective security depends on everybody doing their fair share.”

Senator King: “Absolutely, but the bottom line is we have allies, they don’t – and that’s an advantage would should maintain.”

Secretary Esper: “Not just maintain. We should keep growing it. We should expand our networks.”

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator King is recognized as a thoughtful voice on national security and foreign policy issues in the Senate. In addition to his committee work, he serves on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the Senate North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Observer Group, and the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.