U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed at a meeting with his Scandinavian and Baltic colleagues that NATO will keep its "open door policy that welcomes new members when they are ready."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell got Estonia's progress report from Estonian Foreign Minister Toomas Ilves on June 6 and praised Estonia's commitment to the effort.
"Once again, the secretary stated very clearly, no country has a veto over future NATO membership," Richard Boucher, the spokesman for the U.S. Department of State, told The Los Angeles Times.
While recent positive statements by U.S. officials and other experts have acclaimed the progress of the Baltic countries in their efforts to join NATO, it is too early to celebrate, says Harri Tiido, Estonia's deputy undersecretary of the Estonian foreign ministry.
According to Tiido, the Rumsfeld statement is not a guarantee - and no one expects one at this stage.
"Rumsfeld's statement was reiteration of the U.S. policy and its most important aspect was to convey the message that the U.S. position hasn't changed with the change of administration.
NATO as a whole and the U.S. in particular do not intend to "name names yet, it's too early," Tiido told The Baltic Times.
The interests of Estonia's neighbors, particularly Finland and Russia, also come under consideration when discussing NATO enlargement in the Baltics.
Finland's new chief of defence, Admiral Juhani Kaskeala, told Agence France-Presse on June 6, three days before the Turku meeting, that NATO membership for the Baltic republics would be a stabilizing factor in the area around Finland.
"It would remove all speculation concerning what the internal minority conflicts of these countries might lead to," Kaskeala said.
One of the security hazards affecting the Baltic states is seen to be the prospect that Russia might start using military pressure to bolster the position of the Russian minorities in those countries.
As for his own country, Kaskeala said that it is "not necessary for Finland to start looking for solutions that differ from the present ones."
Tiido also commented on the role Russia will play in the enlargement scenario.
"I think the best way is to convince them of the inevitability of the enlargement process as such and the Baltics' membership in particular, as the process is based on the sovereign decision of the candidate countries and on the principles of NATO," he said.
"A stable neighborhood should be in Russia's interests as well and it would enable Russia to divert its attention to more necessary domestic reforms."
It would also help the Russians overcome what Tiido called imperialist, "red-line thinking."
The necessary 2 percent of GDP allocated for defense is not a miracle cure for Estonia to leap into NATO, he added. "We have a lot of homework to do in addition to this 2 percent. Inviting any new country would take a certain critical mass of political will on the part of NATO nations," Tiido said.
"Will Estonia get an invitation in 2002? If there were a definite answer I wouldn't believe it before it was decided, signed and made public in Prague," concluded Tiido.
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