US SAYS NATO MEMBERSHIP FOR BALTICS NEARLY INEVITABLE
WASHINGTON, July 16 (AFP) - The entry of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia into NATO is a near inevitability despite Russia's strident opposition to enlarging the alliance, a senior US official said Friday.
"I would stop just short of saying it's inevitable," Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott told reporters on the last day of the US-Baltic partnership commission's second annual meeting.
"It is desirable and I think there is considerable reason for optimism that it will occur because of the extraordinary progress these three countries have made," he said.
He acknowleged that Moscow was vehemently opposed to any enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, particularly into the Baltic region.
Russia has "expressed specific concerns and opposition with regards to the Baltics regards ... Obviously this is an issue of very intense disagreement," said Talbott, but he seemed to dismiss Russia's opposition as unlikely to prevent the three nations from joining the alliance.
Talbott noted that NATO had already expanded this year, adding the Czech Republic, Hunagry and Poland to its rolls, despite Russian opposition and that the alliance had gone ahead with air strikes against Yugoslavia in the face of Moscow's anger.
"The challenge for many years to come is going to be to manage the disagreements and maintain total clarity about the (alliance's) driving principles, one of which is that no sovereign state can be declared ineligible for NATO membership because of geography."
Officials from the three countries vowed that each would complete the necessary requirements for NATO entry, in particular boosting defense spending to the recommended level.
"For Estonia, NATO is a primary foreign policy priority," said Estonian Foreign Minister Toomas Hedrik, promising that Tallinn would fulfull its membership obligations.
"Our commitment is very strong," said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Algiurdas Saudargas, who was echoed by Latvia's Deputy Secretary of State, Maris Reikstins.
All three visiting officials, who met Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Thursday, and Talbott said the Kosovo conflict had soldified NATO's relevance for the coming century and had underscored the importance of multi-ethnic democracies for stability.
"One of the principle lessons to come out of the Kosovo experience ... is that security and stability of southern Europe will depend on exactly the kind of integration, institution building and democratization that are already so far advanced in norther Europe specifically in the Baltic region," Talbott said.
The second meeting of partnership commission, established in January 1998, had been postponed since May because of the Kosovo crisis.