Baltics celebrate 75 years of unity treaty

2009-09-11
TBT Staff in cooperatio with the Lithuanian MFA

The treaty was the first trilateral unity arrangement between the Baltics

VILNIUS- On Sept. 12, the 75th anniversary of signing the Treatyon Unity and Cooperation by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on 12September 1934 at the session of the United Nations in Geneva will be commemorated.

In theopinion of Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Usackas,the first trilateral Treaty embedded the idea of the unity of theBaltic States and laid the foundations for a strategic dialogue of theBaltic States, which is successfully continued till now.

Even though during the pre-war period not all the provisions of thisTreaty were implemented, after the re-establishment of the independenceof the Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia started a new phaseof trilateral relations on the basis of the above-mentioned Treaty,established joint institutions for cooperation of their Parliaments andGovernments. This year Lithuania chairs the Baltic Assembly and theBaltic Council of Ministers.

With the Treaty on Unity and Cooperation of the BalticStates, signed in 1934 by Foreign Ministers, the Governmentsof Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia committed to "to work together inforeign policy matters of mutual importance and to provide mutualassistance in political and diplomatic matters in their internationalrelations."

The Baltic States followed the Treaty of 1934 also when they werere-establishing their independence, providing a legal basis for mutualcooperation and highlighting the continuity of their statehood.

On 12 May 1990 in Tallinn, heads of the Parliaments of Lithuania,Latvia and Estonia signed the Declaration on Unity and Cooperation bythe Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Latvia and the Republic ofEstonia, which renewed the Treaty on Unity and Cooperation of 1934. TheTreaty was not in effect anymore, because it was illegally suspended in1940.

The Declaration also announced about the creation of the Council ofBaltic States. This institution of cooperation of the Baltic States,created during the period of re-establishment of independence, wasreplaced by the Baltic Assembly and the Baltic Council of Ministers in1994.

Today through the activities of these institutions, Lithuania,Latvia and Estonia are continuing their regional cooperation, whilestrengthening close political, economic, and cultural, science,education and other relations, and coordinate their activities in theEuropean Union and NATO.