Okla. Delegates Hope NATO Defense Spending Grows

President Biden had barely arrived in Lithuania for a two-day NATO summit that begins Tuesday when he learned of the first significant bit of progress to come from the meeting: the decision by Turkey not to block Sweden's admission to the military alliance.

"I welcome the statement issued by Türkiye, Sweden and the NATO Secretary General this evening," said President Biden in a statement, "including the commitment by President Erdoğan to transmit the Accession Protocol for Sweden to Türkiye’s Grand National Assembly for swift ratification."

Sweden and Finland, each situated close to Russia and having remained militarily neutral dating to the Cold War, chose to pursue admission to NATO last year, shortly after Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Finland formally became the alliance's 31st member in April. Sweden now seems likely to become member nation number 32.

Sweden's status was one of several significant issues expected to be addressed at the summit. Ongoing support for Ukraine -- and its potential inclusion in the alliance -- certainly sits at the top of the agenda.

Collectively, NATO's member nations have sent about $70 billion dollars worth of military equipment to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion almost 17 months ago.

There has not been universal agreement among the allies on what weapons and equipment to provide, just as there are some questioning President Biden's decision last week to provide Ukraine with controversial cluster bombs.

"It took me a while to be convinced to do it," said Biden Friday in an interview on CNN, "but the main thing is they either have the weapons to stop the Russians now...or they don’t. I think they needed them."

And with the coup attempt by the Wagner Group in Russia still fresh, NATO badly wants to put on a unified front, not only to send a strong message to Russian President Putin, but also to give Ukraine additional momentum as it mounts a major counter-offensive.

"We need to make sure we give them every resource they need," said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) in a recent interview.

Sen. Mullin is a strong supporter of arming Ukraine, but he and Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and many others in Congress believe the rest of NATO, on the whole, needs to be spending more on defense.

At the 2014 NATO summit, it was agreed that each member nation would strive to hit a target of increasing defense spending to two percent of their respective gross domestic product within ten years. But in 2022, only the United States and six others had attained the goal, prompting Lankford, Mullin and 33 other Senators to say, in a letter to Biden, “The lack of sufficient progress is politically and economically unsustainable. American citizens rightly question why our government disproportionately bears the burden—decade after decade—for Europe's defense. In Vilnius, we respectfully request that you make this issue a top priority."

There are reports that NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg will aggressively push members to agree to make two percent of GDP the minimum amount each spends on defense, and potentially up to three percent.