; Whereas, since the Wales Summit, Latvia, Lithuania, and many other allies have increased defense spending in an effort to meet that defense spending target; Whereas NATO remains committed to its open door policy on enlargement, working with countries in the Euro-Atlantic region that aspire to join NATO to help meet the requirements for membership; Whereas, at the 2016 NATO Warsaw Summit, NATO Heads of State and Government formally invited Montenegro to become the 29th member of NATO; Whereas General James Jones, United States Marine Corps (retired), former National Security Advisor, testified before the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate in July 2016 that [o]ur 27 NATO allies offer America forward basing, which allows us to better fight enemies like ISIS and deter adversaries like the new Russia and to meet shared challenges. Twenty-eight countries acting as one is a powerful alliance ; Whereas Secretary of Defense James Mattis testified before the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate, during his hearing as nominee for Secretary of Defense, that [w]e must also embrace our international alliances and security partnerships. History is clear: Nations with strong allies thrive and those without them wither ; Whereas there is a long tradition of strong bipartisan agreement that participation in NATO strengthens the security of the United States; Whereas NATO is the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside the Western Hemisphere and today remains the largest peacetime military alliance in the world; Whereas a fractured NATO alliance would harm the interests of the United States and embolden adversaries of the United States; and Whereas a strong and united Europe is important to United States strategic interests: Now, therefore, be it