Vow to counter threats to NATO expansion

SIGULDA - The foreign affairs committees of the Baltic parliaments agreed to cooperate to combat threats to their countries' security which they believe may arise in the runup to next year's NATO summit at which they hope invitations to join will be forthcoming.

Following the meeting in the historic Latvian town of Sigulda on Sept. 7 Guntars Krasts, head of the Latvian Parliament's foreign affairs committee, said recent statements by the Russian leadership concerning the situation of Estonia's and Latvia's Russian speaking minorities highlighted the need for cooperation.

Krasts said in future the Baltic states would react together to counter assertions by Russia that one or another country was infringing minority rights.

It was also decided to redouble efforts to gain the support of other countries for NATO enlargement to the Baltic states. Krasts said that while membership of the European Union had become a purely technical issue, problems connected with accession to NATO required the Baltic states' full attention.

In a joint communiqué the committees stated the importance of next year in integrating the Baltic states into Euro-Atlantic structures and promised to cooperate on common foreign policy aims. The leaders of NATO's member states are expected to discuss further enlargement at the summit in Prague in November next year.

Russia, they said, had continued to try to block NATO expansion to the region. They condemned recent statements in which the situation of Latvia's Russian-speakers was compared to that of Albanians in Macedonia.

The statement also said that in the context of EU and NATO enlargement the Baltic countries should be regarded as a region of increasing investment, where social, national and international prosperity was expected in the near future.

Linking the three states' electrical and gas systems with those of the European Union was essential in order to guarantee economic and military security, the statement said.