Ranking Member Shaheen Joins President Zelenskyy and Bipartisan Group of Senators to Discuss U.S.-Ukraine Security Cooperation at Munich Security Conference

MUNICH—Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and John Cornyn (R-TX) for a panel discussion entitled “Strategic Investment: The Future of U.S.-Ukraine Security Cooperation” at the Munich Security Conference. During the discussion, Ranking Member Shaheen expressed her strong support for providing Ukraine the leverage it needs and the importance of U.S.-Europe cooperation in confronting Putin’s aggression. You can watch the discussion here. 

“I don't think we should take NATO off the table,” said Ranking Member Shaheen. “I think it's important for us to have as much leverage for Ukraine as possible going into any kind of a negotiation. So, I agree with Senator Graham. We need to give them weapons. I think there's bipartisan support in Congress to do that. I think we need to make sure that NATO membership continues to be on the table—and we need to do everything—and we need to ensure that Ukraine is at the negotiating table, because one of the mistakes in Afghanistan was that the Afghan government was not at the negotiating table when President Trump in his first term negotiated a peace agreement there.” 

"I think one of the things we haven't talked about—we've talked about the U.S. role—but Europe also has a role,” continued Ranking Member Shaheen. “The sanctions that we’ve put on Russia are a lot stronger if Europe is fully engaged in those sanctions, and Europe has also contributed to ensuring that Ukraine can defend itself. So, we've got to remember that it's important for us to act together.” 

“The transatlantic alliance has been one of the longest relationships, allies, certainly in U.S. history, and I think it's important to continue that,” concluded Ranking Member Shaheen. “I think Vice President Vance missed a good opportunity to point out the past relationship, and why we have been successful when we backed it together.” 

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