WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will tell the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s graduating cadets that they are starting their service at a crucial moment for the world, a period in history when the “rule of law is strained” and “fundamental principles are under threat.”
Harris, in the commencement speech Wednesday at the academy in New London, Connecticut, will reflect on the state of the world in which long-standing rules and norms are more frequently coming under attack, noting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to excerpts of the speech released by her office.
“And the challenges we face are broader than Russia,” Harris says. “Around the world, we see additional attempts to undermine the rules-based order: Nations that threaten the freedom of the seas; criminal gangs and traffickers who skirt the rule of law, and fuel corruption and violence; those that manipulate and undermine the foundations of international commerce.”
The Democratic vice president also makes the case that as Coast Guard members the graduates will play an important role in helping the United States uphold the international rules-based order, calling it one of the United States’ “defining missions.”