Whereas, on April 4, 1949, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, DC, and established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to safeguard the Allies’ freedom and security by political and military means; Whereas Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that an armed attack against a member country shall be considered an attack against all; Whereas, in the Report of the Secretary of State to the President on North Atlantic Treaty on April 7, 1949, Secretary of State Dean Acheson stated, that no party can rely on others for its defense unless it does its utmost to defend itself and contribute toward the defense of the others ; Whereas, in 2006, NATO Defense Ministers agreed to annually commit a minimum of 2 percent of their nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on their defense; Whereas, according to NATO, the 2-percent GDP defense spending threshold serves as an indicator of a country’s political will to contribute to NATO’s common defense ; Whereas, in 2014, in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the NATO alliance adopted the Defence Investment Pledge and at that time only three of the 28 NATO member countries were meeting their 2-percent defense spending commitment; Whereas the Wales Summit Declaration issued by the NATO alliance stated, We agree to reverse the trend of declining defence budgets, to make the most effective use of our funds and to further a more balanced sharing of costs and responsibilities. Our overall security and defence depend both on how much we spend and how we spend it. ; Whereas the Defence Investment Pledge recommitted NATO member countries to meeting the minimum 2-percent GDP defense spending target by 2024; Whereas the Senate supported the 2014 Wales Summit Defense Spending Benchmark on March 28, 2017, by ratifying the Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 on the Accession of Montenegro on a vote of 97–2