WARSAW–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and co-chair of the Senate Poland Caucus, on Tuesday spoke on a panel at the Warsaw Security Forum about the importance of the transatlantic alliance and opportunities to work together in the face of Russian and Chinese aggression. Murphy was joined by Helena Carreiras, Portugal’s Minister of Defense, and Ben Wallace, the U.K.’s Secretary of State for Defense.

On working with Europe to compete with China, Murphy said: “This is a moment in which I think we have to be realistic about the opportunities that frankly come with the great power competition, not just the downsides. I mean, listen, I think the future of relations with China run through our ability to build seamless cooperation between the United States and Europe. And so, I am gladdened by our increasing discussions around trade and technology. If we’re going to have an industrial policy in the United States, which I think we are on our way towards, it makes no sense to do that unilaterally. We should be building a common industrial policy with Europe. It doesn’t make sense for Europe to move out way ahead of us on technology regulation, [it’s] better for us to set the standard together. So, I think China delights when we are setting different standards, when we are creating parallel industrial policies. I think they know they’re in for a much rougher ride when we’re acting together.

“And frankly, to this question we were discussing before about how you present an offer to countries that right now are allured by the free money with no strings attached from China: creating a seamless market between the United States and Europe, creating an easy plug-in to the transatlantic… as an alternative to economic reliance with China is the future as well,” Murphy added.

Murphy highlighted the importance of investing in economic development and diplomacy as foreign policy tools: “In Africa, I think we’re viewing the consequence of the United States continuing to look at the continent through a security-only lens. We have spent five times as much money padding the budgets of security agencies as we do trying to midwife economic development, as we do trying to fight corruption and build good governance. And we end up funding security forces that are corrupt, that are abusing their own people, giving opportunities to Russians and the Chinese to come in and fill the vacuum. And so, while I agree that this is a moment where we have to understand the need to bolster our conventional defensive capabilities, it’s also a reminder that we simply don’t have the economic development and pro-democracy tools that we need to have in places like Africa.”

On Trump’s failed rhetoric against support for Ukraine and his "America First" agenda, Murphy said: “I think what's interesting is that in real time, to give you a little bit of a sense of what's happening in American politics today, President Trump is market testing his old messages of criticism and hostility to the transatlantic alliance. Some of his allies are sort of putting out messages of skepticism about continuing to fund Ukraine. But they're not landing…Americans see in a brand new way the value of this alliance. These attacks, which I think were successful in the past, on the value of staying true to the alliance, I just don’t think work the way that they might have six years ago. And so yes, I think in many ways, Vladimir Putin and his attack on Ukraine has renewed Americans vigor for the alliance and I think has diminished the impact politically of candidates who might think that they can score points by trying to argue for America's resources to come back home.”

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