00:00society and their hope and spirit and will to prevail and continue to fight.
00:06I want to ask you, Senator Wick, I know that you are a strong supporter of Ukraine.
00:13The United States has served as a beacon for freedom and democracy for 250 years.
00:20Shining city on a hill, as Ronald Reagan put it.
00:24It has been admired for the high value it places on individual freedoms,
00:28and many of us, including myself, continue to believe in the American people.
00:33But these are testing times for that belief.
00:37Do you have hope that the American people and its leaders can be convinced
00:43that it is better for their own lives and for their own future to protect the liberal world order?
00:50I think the American people already believe that, and I think that belief will continue.
00:55Let me begin by thanking Minister Sibya for the warm welcome that he and President Zelensky
01:04gave our delegation just a few days ago in Kyiv.
01:09With regard to the title of this brief session, I'm not sure that I accept the premise
01:19that the international order that has served us so well is toward its end and something will come after.
01:31And I certainly hope I'm correct in that regard.
01:35Also, I want to thank Minister Sibya for making clear – for clearing up a question that had been legitimately
01:45asked.
01:46Is the United States continuing to share intelligence with our friend and ally, Ukraine?
01:52Thank you for – for putting that – that rumor to rest.
01:59And also, let me just say that it is a fact that the United States shares intelligence,
02:05but also we receive a lot of intelligence to the United States from our Ukrainian friends.
02:11So let me make sure that it's a – you understand it's a two-way street.
02:17Let me also take a few moments – and we don't have very much time – to say what I've
02:23been saying
02:24to Americans and to my American colleagues in the Armed Services Committee for at least two years.
02:30And that is that we need to realize that this is the most serious, most dangerous international security situation
02:39that we have seen since before World War II, and it involves an axis of aggression,
02:49whose members are four – Russia, certainly, as our friends in Eastern Europe know so well,
02:59China, North Korea, and Iran.
03:02And there's no question – if you read the public news and also those of you who have access to
03:10other information,
03:10there's no question that they are helping each other.
03:14There's no question that Russia could not be doing what it is doing in Ukraine without the help of China.
03:20So we need to realize that.
03:22And the consequence of that realization is that everybody needs to step up.
03:29And to that extent, we appreciate those members of NATO who've agreed to the 5% earlier than is absolutely
03:39required in the agreement.
03:43And it also means the United States must step up.
03:48And we are doing that also.
03:50As we've requested and gotten commitments from our NATO friends to 5% as soon as possible,
03:56we intend – and the Trump administration has proposed a dramatic increase of over half a trillion dollars to our
04:08national defense.
04:09And so if the president has his way and if Congress goes along after the midterm elections in three weeks,
04:17we will appropriate $1.5 trillion, a stunning amount for national defense.
04:25So we're asking our European friends to step up.
04:29We are ourselves stepping up.
04:32And in an earlier panel, Asia was mentioned.
04:35And absolutely, yes, we are working with South Korea, with our friends in Taiwan, and our other allies, strong allies
04:47in Asia and in the Pacific
04:50who understand that the threat is real to them also.
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