Jan. 11- Senator Jesse Helms endorses the Baltic bid for NATO expansion

The Address by Chairman, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations at the American Enterprise Institute
January 11, 2001

“Towards a Compassionate Conservative Foreign Policy"

Perhaps the greatest moral challenge we face at the dawn of a new century is to right the wrongs perpetrated in the last century at Yalta, when the West abandoned the nations of Central and Eastern Europe to Stalin and a life of servitude behind the Iron Curtain.

We began the process of righting that wrong in 1998, when the Senate voted to admit Poland. Hungary and the Czech Republic into the NATO alliance. I consider it one of my proudest moments as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to have helped usher in those three nations' admission to NATO, and thus to have helped them secure their rightful place in the community of Western democracies.

But the admission of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic has not yet fully erased the scars of Yalta. During the Cold War, I was one of a group of Senators who fought to defend the independence of what came to be known as the "Captive Nations" (the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) - and who worked to make sure that the United States never recognized their illegal annexation by the Soviet Union.

With the collapse of Communism, those nations finally achieved their rightful independence from Russian occupation and domination. Yet Russia still looms menacingly over these countries In looking at the current Russian government, one gets the distinct impression that the Russian leadership considers Baltic independence to be a temporary phenomenon. That is an impression that the Russians cannot be allowed to long entertain.

Just as we never recognized the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States, we must not repeat the mistakes of the 1940s today by acknowledging a Russian sphere of influence in what Russian leaders ominously call the "near abroad." These nations' independence will never be fully secure until they are safe from the threat of Russian domination and are fully integrated into the community of Western democracies.

I intend to work with the Bush Administration to ensure that the Baltic States are invited to join their neighbors Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as members of the NATO alliance. This is vital not only for their security, but for ours as well. If we want good relations with Russia, we must show Russia's leaders an open path to good relations, while at the same time closing off' their avenues to destructive behavior. That means taking the next step in the process of NATO expansion, by issuing invitations to the Baltic nations when NATO's leaders meet for the next alliance summit planned for 2002.

Revised: October 29, 2002
http://lithuanian-american.org/