WASHINGTON, DC—Representative Eliot L. Engel, the leading Democrat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today made the following statement regarding President Obama’s address in Estonia:

“In Estonia today, President Obama made a clear case for strengthening and modernizing NATO. He reaffirmed our ironclad commitment to NATO’s Article V guarantee to all alliance members, and he also underscored that the success of NATO is a responsibility shared by all the allies.

“The President is correct that Russia is carrying out ‘a brazen assault on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.’ The crisis in Ukraine will be central to the upcoming discussions at the NATO summit in Cardiff, and I urge leaders there to work toward a strong, unified response to President Putin's aggression. Now is the time to step up sanctions on Moscow, increase NATO’s military readiness, especially among the Alliance’s eastern members, and, specifically, reverse the sale of the two Mistral warships to Russia through a NATO purchase or lease of these advanced vessels.”

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