McConnell: Subservience To Autocrats Neither An American Value Nor Strategic Interest

'Hungary's leaders have made no secret of their conviction that the future is one of American decline. They're not hiding the ways they're preparing for American weakness and betting on our failure. There's nothing tough about bowing to autocrats. And there's nothing for America's leaders to gain by praising those who do.'

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding NATO:

"I've spoken frequently about the welcome signs that America's European allies are waking up to the strategic challenge posed by the PRC, and to the dangers of predatory Chinese influence in their own backyards.

"Like America, our allies are watching the flaws of China's statist economic model laid bare. They're increasingly wary to hitch their wagons to a totalitarian system that stifles innovation, discourages free thought, and complicates free enterprise.

"They're hesitant to take risks in a system where the rule of law is trampled by the whims of the state, and assets are subject to expropriation by the regime.

"Encouraging progress, like a German security strategy that explicitly recognizes the Chinese threat, and efforts across the EU to reduce reliance on Chinese technologies, presents opportunities for the West to work closer together. To secure supply chains. And to lower barriers to cooperation among allies.

"Unfortunately, this progress is not across-the-board. China may not be a safe business partner, but it's still an enticing one for far too many economies… including within the NATO alliance.

"I've spoken before about Hungary's decade-long drift into the orbit of the West's most determined adversaries. It's an alarming trend. And nobody - certainly not the American conservatives who increasingly form a cult of personality around Prime Minister Viktor Orban - can pretend not to see it.

"Hungary's leaders aren't cozying up to Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran in private. They're doing it publicly and vocally as well.

"The Orban government has welcomed China's view of a 'European bridgehead' in Hungary as the perfect complement to its own declared policy of an 'opening to the East.' And it hasn't been shy about turning words into actions.

"When Chinese state enterprise has said jump, Hungarian officials have asked, how high?

"As European allies began to heed warnings from the Trump Administration to reduce reliance on Chinese industry and technology, Budapest repeatedly blocked EU progress and welcomed a geyser of Chinese Belt-and-Road investment.

"Included in the torrent of PRC influence was five-hundred-million Euros from a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer to build a new facility on Hungarian soil… and another seven-billion-euro investment in a new EV battery plant.

"Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of a former vassal of Russian communism has nothing but praise for the neo-Soviet imperialist responsible for the first major land war in Europe since 1945.

"Viktor Orban describes the regime that has sacrificed tens- if not hundreds of thousands of Russian lives and more than $200 billion dollars in military force for its unprovoked - and thus far unsuccessful - aggression against Ukraine as 'hyper-rational'.

"But this NATO Prime Minister doesn't just admire Putin. He helps him. His government runs interference for Moscow, gumming up European and trans-Atlantic efforts to combat Russia's unlawful aggression at every turn.

"European allies are providing more assistance to Ukraine than the US is, but Americans who complain the EU isn't doing more to help Ukraine should look no further than to Budapest's efforts to block additional EU assistance for the answer.

"And then there's Budapest's relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hungary's Foreign Minister has bemoaned that ongoing international sanctions make it 'really challenging to build effective economic and trade cooperation' with the world's most active state sponsor of terror.

"I have little sympathy for Hungarian companies that struggle to profit from their ties to the genocidal regime in Tehran.

"Of course, that hasn't stopped Hungarian firms from committing tens of millions of dollars to financing joint nuclear projects with Iran.

"It didn't stop a national Hungarian university from inviting the former Iranian President to a conference on 'common values in the global environment'.

"'Common values' with Tehran. And here I thought it was American conservatives who claimed shared values with Hungary's ruling party. Has the Orban government forgot its adoring fans on this side of the Atlantic?

"No. Hungary's leaders have made no secret of their conviction that the future is one of American decline. They're not hiding the ways they're preparing for American weakness and betting on our failure.

"There's nothing tough about bowing to autocrats. And there's nothing for America's leaders to gain by praising those who do.

"Subservience to revanchist powers is not an American value. But far more importantly, it is not in America's interests."

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