Subject: Foreign Policy
Part I: Mutual Relations with Russia
The contents of the review:
* The US President supported the Baltic countries in their dispute with Russia
* The border question: Latvians are not ready to follow the Estonian lead
George Bush's support of the Baltic states
Relations with Russia were the main question of Baltic countries` foreign policy in May, 2005. The month began most advantageously from the point of view of the Baltic politicians. The support of the position of the Baltics articulated by the American President, George Bush, was a good reason for optimism. At the beginning of the month, on May 4, Bush had sent a special message to the President of Estonia, Arnold Rüütel, in which he approved the Estonian leader's decision not to visit Moscow during the celebrations of the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. " I respect the choice made by you… America is proud, to stand nip and tuck with you" - the President of the USA wrote to his Estonian counterpart.
Two days later, during a press conference on his forthcoming visit to the Baltics, Bush declared to the journalists that the annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the USSR in 1940 and 1945 was illegal. This claim was sounded again by Bush on May 7, during his visit to Riga, capital city of Latvia. In his statement there, Bush also condemned the Yalta agreement between the USSR, the USA and Britain, according to which the territory of the Baltics had to be connected to the Soviet Union at the end of WWII. Presently, the American leader declared, all three Baltic states are setting example for the countries wishing to achieve freedom and democracy.
The Border Question
The above-mentioned statements of the American president have poured oil on the flame of a potentially permanent conflict between the Baltics and Russia. The main point of this conflict over the last month was the issue of the border. In this connection, it is necessary to recall that Estonia and Latvia have a common frontier with Russia, whereas Lithuania borders only the Kaliningrad area, the Russian territorial enclave on the coast of the Baltic Sea (formerly, the German colony Kenigsberg). Thus, Moscow, Tallinn and Riga are involved in the dispute. From the moment of the Baltic states' proclamation of independence in 1991 and up to the present day, there is no precisely determined border between Latvia and Estonia and Russia. The existing border - an inheritance of the Soviet period - is a border formerly between three republics of the Soviet Union. The line was drawn for the benefit of Russia, after WWII and the occupation of the Baltics. As a result, for the past 15 years Riga and Tallinn have refused to sign the border agreements with Moscow, without the recognition of their legitimate right over the Estonian and Latvian territories seized 60 years ago. In spite of the fact that the drafts of such documents, at both Estonian and Latvian directions, had been prepared by diplomats of the parties already in the second half of the nineties.
The question of the border again became the subject of active discussion after the introduction of the Baltics into the European Community in May, 2004. According to the charter of this organization, member countries should not have territorial disputes with neighboring adjacent states. As the result, negotiations concerning the border between Latvia and Estonia on one side, and Russia on the other, have been renewed. Negotiations, predictably, appeared to be hard. However, on May 18, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and his Estonian colleague Urmas Paet signed the long-awaited border agreement in Moscow. Yet, the fact of inking the paper does not automatically make it effective. At the next stage, it should receive approval of the Estonian parliament (Riikogu). However, due to the summer parliamentary recess, debate on ratification will begin only in autumn, and there are already many opponents to the agreement in the Parliament. In their opinion, the document signed in Moscow contradicts the Estonian constitution. According to the constitution, the modern Estonian Republic is the successor of the independent Estonia, which existed until 1940. The borders of the state during this period were determined by the agreement signed with Russia in city of Tartu in 1920. Based upon this, the present Estonian government simply cannot recognize any other border agreement, except for one that confirms the one, signed in Tarty. In the opinion of the opponents of the agreement signed in Moscow, it creates an impression that Estonia as an independent state arose only in 1991 and this constitutes a distortion of the historical facts. The opponents of the border agreement in Latvia maintain a similar position. Unlike what is happening in Estonia, the opposition to the agreement in the Latvian Parliament (Saejma) and government is much stronger. For this reason, the draft of a border agreement with Russia was accompanied by a special unilateral declaration. Latvia declared in this document its historical rights over the previously Latvian area named Abrene, which today is part of the Pskov area of Russia and is called Pitalovo. This addition to the agreement caused a sharp protest on behalf of Russia, and the signing, which had been scheduled for May 10, was postponed indefinitely. At the end of May, the Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga made an attempt to set in motion the process of ratification of the agreement. So, in particular, it was declared theoretically possible to change some paragraphs of the Latvian constitution, which hamper the signing of the agreement without an agreement on the Abrene – Pitalovo issue. As for Lithuania, though it is not formally involved in the present dispute between Russia, Latvia and Estonia, nevertheless, its leaders decided to support their Baltic neighbors. At the end of April the Lithuanian Parliament accepted, by majority of voices, the statement "Estimation of consequences of the end of WWI in Europe," in which Russia was called to admit the Soviet occupation of the Baltics. The Sejm in its statement called Russia, which is aspiring to approach democratic Europe, "to see and recognize both the defeat of Nazism, and aspects of the occupation of the Baltic states, to honor the memory of victims not only of Nazism, but also of Bolshevism". Consequently, following the direction of this policy, the President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus officially declared on May 1 his refusal to visit the ceremony in Moscow celebrating the anniversary of a victory over Nazi Germany. In this connection it is necessary to recall that at the end of April, in the Estonian city of Pjarnu, the assembly of members of parliament of the Baltics took place. The participants called on Russia to admit the fact of its occupation of the region in 1945. Moreover, presently a draft resolution containing an appeal to Russia to recognize the occupation and annexation of the Baltic states is being considered in the US Congress. The draft says that the government of Russia should recognize and unambiguously condemn the Soviet Union's illegal occupation and annexation of the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - from 1940 to 1991. On May, 21 the resolution was approved by the US Senate. The position of the Baltic states is held also by several leaders of the EU, including the assistant to the head of Eurocommission, Gunter Verheugen.
Related items:
Part One: Behind the scenes of the Baltic Economic Forum: The true reason of the Russian boycott
Estonian Leadership Searches for Allies in Conflict with Russia
Intelligence Activity of the Russian Secret Services in Baltic Countries
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