{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://larsen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2821", "Seattle Times: Op-Ed: NATO must continue to stand with Ukraine", "2023-12-04", "2023", "2023-12", "Democrat", "House", "WA", "Rick Larsen", "L000560", "larsen.house.gov", "larsen", "https://larsen.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "In October, representatives from NATO member countries, including the United States, gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the 69th annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. The primary focus of this year\u2019s session was NATO allies\u2019 and partners\u2019 unwavering support for Ukraine.\n\nAs a member of the Assembly\u2019s Defence and Security Committee, I presented my second report on Ukraine\u2019s ongoing fight for freedom and the international response to Putin\u2019s illegal war. The report outlines the evolution of the war, NATO\u2019s support for Ukraine and the impact the war is having on Ukraine, the region and the world.\n\nThe report also outlines six recommendations to reaffirm and strengthen NATO\u2019s commitment to Ukraine as Putin\u2019s war of aggression grinds through its second year. Those recommendations are:\n\n\u25cf NATO countries must sustain and boost military and financial support for Ukraine to enable Ukraine to defend itself from aggression and recapture territory seized by Russian forces;\n\n\u25cf NATO countries must support the continuity of deterrence and defense missions; for example, by investing in critical weapons stockpiles;\n\n\u25cf NATO countries must tighten sanctions on Putin and his enablers to greatly limit the Kremlin\u2019s ability to prosecute its illegal war;\n\n\u25cf NATO countries must throw their political and diplomatic weight behind Ukraine and rally the world to support the young democracy;\n\n\u25cf NATO countries must look ahead and plan for Ukraine\u2019s reconstruction to enable Ukraine to consolidate its significant democratic gains;\n\n\u25cf NATO countries must consider the global context of Putin\u2019s war.\n\nPutin\u2019s war has changed accelerated competition between the United States and China. Putin\u2019s war has also revealed a global division between democracies and revisionist states looking to upend the rules-based international order. These dynamics will have a profound impact on the future of the world\u2019s political organization and on American security.\n\nThe NATO alliance was founded on democratic values after World War II. Nearly 75 years after its founding, NATO countries must again defend the rules-based order, an order that has greatly benefited the United States.\n\nNATO allies and partners have learned that Ukraine\u2019s victory will be neither quick nor easy. Defending democracy, self-determination and sovereignty is no small task. But NATO countries, including the United States, cannot allow authoritarian actors like Putin to violate these principles with impunity.\n\nThat is why Congress must soon pass legislation that fully funds the president\u2019s request for security and humanitarian aid in support of Ukraine. And that is why Congress and our NATO allies must stand by our values and reaffirm that we will support Ukraine as long as it takes for the young democracy to control its own borders, select its own leaders and determine its own future.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://larsen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2821"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8410681039094925, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}