Rumsfeld lauds Baltic NATO push

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said June 8 he was impressed by the strides the three Baltic states have made to prepare themselves for membership in NATO.

"I don't know that I see shortcomings," he said after meeting with Nordic and Baltic defense ministers here.

"What I see is a lot of effort by three countries that are determined, are interested, have worked closely with NATO countries to take the appropriate steps necessary to be qualified applicants," he said.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are in a favored position to become the first former Soviet republics to be invited to join the alliance when leaders of NATO countries meet at a summit in Prague Nov. 21-22 to decide on the next round of enlargement.

A dramatic improvement in NATO's relations with Russia, long opposed to eastward expansion of its onetime foe, has removed the greatest obstacle to the admission of the Baltic states.

"The question of enlargement is not our business. It is NATO's business," Russian Defense Minis-ter Sergei Ivanov told reporters in Brussels earlier this week.

Rumsfeld, who arrived here in the evening of June 7 from Brussels with Norwegian Defense Minister Kristin Krohn Devold, met individually with defense ministers from four Nordic countries that have been helping the Baltic states reshape their militaries to Western standards.

They then joined the Baltic defense ministers for an annual meeting on security issues, this year discussing terrorism and how to develop their military capabilities to fit with NATO priorities.

"We believe a very, very strong military alliance like NATO is still relevant," said Sven Mikser, Estonia's defense minister. "We see this as not an additional bonus to our security, but actually we see NATO as the Estonian security arrangement for the future."

Lithuanian Defense Minister Linas Antanas Linkevicius said that, though small, the Baltic states felt they had a contribution to make to the alliance.

"We'll probably not be front liners in this organization, but we won't be free riders either," he said.

The United States shares in a broad NATO consensus that a large group of countries should be brought in to the alliance in the current round, U.S. officials say.

The favorites are the three Baltic states plus Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. Albania and Macedonia, which would also like to join, are considered long shots. Croatia also is expected to declare its candidacy before the summit.

Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were the first countries from the former Soviet bloc to be admitted to the alliance in 1999.

Once fiercely contested by Moscow, NATO enlargement now elicits a shrug from the Russians who have joined NATO in a new council to deal with issues such as counter-terrorism, missile defense and military cooperation.

The way has been smoothed by a sea change in U.S.-Russian relations since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.