Senate Minority Leader To Urge NATO Members To Increase Defence Spending

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said, in a speech on the Senate floor, that he will tell NATO allies at the Munich Security Conference that they must do more to increase defence spending.

• McConnell: "Our security and Europe's security are interlinked. Our economies are intertwined. But the rest of NATO must do more to follow our lead, increase defense spending, upgrade their capabilities and put skin in the game."
• The Republican leader also conveyed an ultra-hawkish message on China ahead of the conference, telling Fox News that President Biden must speak publicly on the "Spy balloon" incident.
• McConnell: "I hope the President will say something to the American people and I hope it goes far beyond what I’ve been able to glean from these so-called classified briefings.”
• McConnell: "The Chinese are clearly an adversary. They teamed up with the Iranians to support the Russians in Ukraine. They're not being helpful on anything I can think of in the national security space."
• McConnell: "And of course we've had longstanding challenges with them with our commercial interaction with them stealing our intellectual property. The Chinese are not our friends."