Apr 25, 2009
The President of the Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. (JBANC), Marju Rink-Abel, offered her congratulations today to the U.S.-Baltic Foundation (USBF) and the Baltic American Freedom League (BAFL) on their affiliation, announced on April 24, 2009. She stated that “JBANC looks forward to future collaboration with them in their endeavors.”

JBANC was founded in 1961 by the three central Baltic American organizations – the Estonian American National Council, Inc., the American Latvian Association, Inc., and the Lithuanian American Council, Inc. – which represent Estonian Americans, Latvian Americans and Lithuanian Americans on the national level. Under their aegis, JBANC has been successfully advocating the Baltic-American agenda with Congress, the White House, the State Department, and other federal agencies for almost fifty years.

JBANC has been one of the most effective ethnic political organizations in the nation’s capital. JBANC was in the forefront of keeping alive the idea of independence for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the corridors of power in Washington, DC. Once this was achieved, JBANC turned to the important goal of Russian troop withdrawal from the Baltics, accomplished after three years of concerted effort. In the summer of 1994 began the decade-long campaign to secure Baltic admission to NATO. Our ultimate goal, NATO membership, was finally achieved on March 29, 2004.

JBANC’s biennial conferences on Baltic issues are well-known in Washington for their insightful speakers and timely topics. This year’s conference, to be held on May 15 and 16, is on Baltic regional security - old threats and new challenges. (See http://jbanc.org for more information).

JBANC maintains ties with a number of organizations with common interests, among them the Central and East European Coalition (CEEC), comprised of 18 national membership organizations representing more than 20 million Americans who trace their heritage to that part of the world. JBANC’s Managing Director, Karl Altau, is a board member of the Victims of Communism Foundation, and also works with the Maryland-Baltic Educational Consortium. JBANC has a history of working with both USBF and BAFL and looks forward to doing so with the newly affiliated organizations.

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