Ricketts said he is committed to deterring Communist China, strengthening military cooperation, and funding Border Patrol and ICE.
Commit to strengthening military cooperation.
Occurrences
The next ambassador must therefore do more than just maintain the status quo. This role requires strengthening deterrence, deepening defense coordination and enhancing resilience.
Evidence
The official Senate site listed a June 11, 2026 press release titled "Ricketts, Kaine Introduce Bill to Bolster AUKUS Cooperation."
Ricketts said, "we need to strengthen our military cooperation with allies and partners in the region" after attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
Ricketts' official Senate issue page says he believes "a strong military and close cooperation with allies" are critical to defending American interests and that he is pushing back against CCP aggression on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Ricketts said he attended the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and had conversations about deterring China. In the transcript, he said, "we need to strengthen our military cooperation with allies and partners in the region," including defense-industrial-base capacity and capabilities for U.S., allied, and partner warfighters.
Congress.gov lists S.2130, the AUKUS Improvement Act of 2025, with Sen. Pete Ricketts as sponsor, introduced June 18, 2025, referred to Senate Foreign Relations, and placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar on October 30, 2025; the tracker still shows status as Introduced.
The bill text says its purpose is "to make improvements to the AUKUS partnership" and would authorize streamlined reexport, retransfer, temporary import, and intra-company, intra-organization, and intra-governmental transfers involving defense articles and services among the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Congress.gov shows H.R.2670 became Public Law 118-31 on December 22, 2023. Its summary includes foreign-nation security cooperation provisions, Indo-Pacific alliance and partnership measures, AUKUS partnership provisions, expedited Foreign Military Sales processing for Australia and the United Kingdom, and authorization for Virginia-class submarine transfer to Australia.
The Senate roll-call page for the conference report to accompany H.R.2670 shows the vote result was "Conference Report Agreed to," 87 yeas to 13 nays, and lists "Ricketts (R-NE), Yea."
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee page lists Ricketts as chairman of the East Asia, The Pacific, & International Cybersecurity Policy Subcommittee and as a member of the Europe & Regional Security Cooperation Subcommittee, whose jurisdiction includes global responsibility for regional security cooperation.
Assessments
Ricketts took several same-term actions consistent with the promise, including sponsoring the AUKUS Improvement Act, publicly advocating stronger military cooperation with allies and partners, serving in relevant Foreign Relations roles, and voting for the FY2024 NDAA, which became law and included AUKUS and Indo-Pacific security-cooperation provisions. However, his own AUKUS bill remained pending, and the enacted NDAA provisions were broad congressional outcomes rather than a clearly Ricketts-led delivery of the promised policy. This supports meaningful progress and effort, but not full fulfillment attributable to him.
The promise is framed broadly, but the evidence shows only partial delivery so far. Ricketts publicly advocated stronger military cooperation with allies and partners and took a concrete same-term legislative step by introducing an AUKUS cooperation bill. Those actions demonstrate real effort and material advancement of the goal, but they do not by themselves show that a completed policy change or clearly attributable strengthening of military cooperation has been achieved yet. Because the outcome appears in progress rather than fully realized, partial credit is the best fit.