The President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Gerald E. Connolly (United States), concluded a week-long visit to Czechia, Estonia and Latvia focused on support for Ukraine and NATO’s commitment to defending democracy. 

In his address to the 3rd Crimea Platform Parliamentary Summit hosted by the Latvian Saeima, President Connolly delivered a strong message of unwavering support for Ukraine’s victory, territorial integrity and self-determination. “We will not yield”, he told the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk and the over 30 Speakers and Deputy Speakers of Parliament assembled in Riga. Contrasting democracies’ support for Ukraine today to their failure to respond to the rise of authoritarianism in the 1930s, he pledged: “We will not repeat the mistakes of that generation. We will not engage in fatigue, in equivocation or enabling behaviour.” Citing the poem “The Cure at Troy” by Irish poet Seamus Heaney, he shared his conviction that: “In Ukraine, our moment, we will make hope and history rhyme.” At the conclusion of the Summit, President Connolly received from Chairman Stefanchuk the state award of the order of Yaroslav the Wise in recognition of his long-standing and strong support of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. 

In all his meetings, President Connolly highlighted the strength of bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States Congress and stressed the importance of maintaining robust support for Ukraine’s victory across the Alliance. He called on Allied governments to unshackle Ukraine by allowing it to use long-range missiles in self-defence against legitimate targets inside Russia. Reports of the deployment of North Korean soldiers in support of Russia’s aggression indicated Moscow’s weakness, not strength, he argued.

In his meetings with Latvian and Estonian officials and military commanders, President Connolly called for bolstering the enforcement of oil sanctions by cracking down on Russia’s shadow fleet to dry out a key source of revenue for Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine.

Parliamentarians and officials in all three Allied capitals warned against Russia’s military as well as hybrid threat to NATO, citing in particular examples of an intensifying and increasingly brazen campaign of sabotage, disinformation, cyberattacks, interference in democratic processes, attempted assassinations and the targeting of critical infrastructure. All also denounced Moscow’s deepening ties with autocratic regimes in Beijing, Pyongyang, Minsk and Tehran. 

In addition to strengthening NATO’s deterrence and defence, addressing the long term threat from autocracy - a threat clearly identified in NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept - requires operationalising NATO’s commitment to defend democracy, President Connolly stressed in all his engagements. In his first meeting with the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Tallinn and in all his engagements, President Connolly reiterated the Assembly’s proposal for NATO to establish a Centre for Democratic Resilience at its headquarters to serve as a clearing house of best practices for Allies and partners alike in addressing threats to democracies. He thanked Czechia, Estonia and Latvia for their consistent support for this proposal. 

“This Alliance has one common theme that unites us”, President Connolly told participants at a conference on democratic resilience hosted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and Jagello 2000 in Prague on the first day of his visit, “it is our shared democratic values”. “After 75 years, it is high time for NATO to create institutional architecture at its headquarters dedicated to the defence and propoundment of democracy.” At the event, IFES announced the launch of a democratic resilience lab to assist in coordinating civil society’s response to the growing authoritarian threat. 

Thanking Czechia, Estonia and Latvia for their support for Ukraine, contributions to the Alliance and robust investment in defence, President Connolly urged his counterparts in the respective parliaments to speak with a louder voice of their first-hand experience and understanding of the threat from Russia and from authoritarianism. He paid tribute to all three nations’ inspiring struggle for freedom and independence against Nazi and Soviet tyranny. 

The Assembly will next meet for its annual session in Montreal, Canada on 22-25 November, where it will hear from top NATO, Allied and partner officials and adopt its policy recommendations on all key priorities on the Alliance’s agenda. 

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