WASHINGTON, D.C. – T his week, U.S. Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, participated in a discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council on the United States’ role in the NATO Alliance and what long-term support the United States and its allies can offer to Ukraine and its people.

“The United States and our NATO partners and allies need to make sure that we continue to provide the support, humanitarian assistance, lethal military aide, and training that is necessary for them to sustain it,” said Senator Tillis. “I think Ukraine has demonstrated that they are a good investment and we have to continue to communicate to the people here in the United States and across the free world that this is important, and we all have a stake in it. We need to stand with Ukraine’s freedom.”

As co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, Senators Tillis and Shaheen led a bipartisan group of lawmakers to the NATO Summit in Spain earlier this year, in addition to stops in Finland and Sweden in support of their NATO membership aspirations in response to Russia’s invasion. The Senate NATO Observer Group, re-established by Tillis and Shaheen in 2018, has an expanded mission to closely monitor and inform Senators outside of national security committees about defense spending commitments of Alliance members, the process of upgrading military capabilities, the Alliance’s counter-terrorism capability, NATO enlargement and the ability of NATO member states to address unconventional warfare threats.

Watch the full discussion here.