The Senate voted 65–28 to approve a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would prevent any U.S. president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO.
The measure, spearheaded by Senators Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Tim Kaine (D., Va.), ensures that the president will not “suspend, terminate, denounce, or withdraw the United States” from NATO, except if two-thirds of senators present concur, or pursuant to an Act of Congress.
The 28 senators who voted against were all Republicans.
While most chief executives, including President Joe Biden, have considered close cooperation with NATO an imperative, former president Donald Trump, who is also the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has repeatedly threatened to pull out of the alliance.
“America is strong on our own, and even stronger with our allies,” wrote Kaine on Twitter after the vote. “Congress stands with this historic alliance.”
A separate NATO-related amendment to the defense spending bill was voted down 16–83, with only Republicans voting in favor. The measure, led by Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.), would have held that “it is the sense of Congress that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty does not supersede the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war before the United States engages in war.”
Article 5 of the treaty enshrines the principle of collective defense — namely, if one of the NATO members is attacked, all of the members are attacked. The Article has only been invoked once by the United States after the 9/11 attacks.
On the other hand, Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) introduced a resolution last month alongside Senator Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) to expand Article 5.
The pair would consider the use of a tactical nuclear weapon by Russia or Belarus (or their proxies), or the destruction of a nuclear facility that disperses radioactive contaminants into NATO territory to be an attack on NATO itself, requiring an Article 5 response.
“Senator Blumenthal and I want to put everyone on notice that the threat of the use of a nuclear device by Russia is real. The best way to deter this threat is to give Putin’s Russia clarity as to what happens if they use nuclear weapons,” said Graham. “Our message is to those around Putin. If you do this and follow his order, should he give it, you can expect a massive response from NATO. You will be at war with NATO.”
In April, a government agency told the New York Times that the U.S. is wiring Ukraine with sensors that can detect bursts of radiation from a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb and can confirm the identity of the attacker.