The nineteen NATO members had unanimously agreed, without debate, to issue membership invitations to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria. For the three Baltic countries, as with the others, it brought closure to almost eight years of effort to be accepted in history's most successful defense alliance.
A hard road still lies ahead, of course, as the invitees must still fulfill certain requirements. And the invitations must be approved by the nineteen NATO member parliaments, the chief among them the U.S. Senate. We at JBANC certainly hope that by the time the NATO countries meet again at a Summit in May 2004, there will be twenty-six national flags flying at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. And that there will be NATO flags flying in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius.
Baltic Americans across this great land have worked hard to help bring this about and deserve the thanks and gratitude of JBANC and all other Baltic American organizations. What remains is informing the Senators in all the fifty states of the need to ratify the Articles of Accession and - amendments to the Washington NATO Treaty of 1949. We feel, of course, that after half a century of suffering in the aftermath of Yalta, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania deserve the votes of all the one hundred senators. It will not be too much to ask!
JBANC kept the U.S. Non-Recognition Declaration alive for decades, at times against almost overwhelming odds. We succeeded. For the last eight years, we worked very hard to help the Baltics to achieve the security they need in joining NATO. Again, we succeeded. But the vagaries surrounding non-recognition taught JBANC to continue keeping a watchful eye for the future good of the Baltics, so there will be no backsliding. Just like we remember the U.S. Non Recognition Declaration of 1940, we will remember the words of President George W. Bush in Vilnius on November 23, 2002:
Mr. President, the Balts, Baltic Americans and friends of the Baltics thank you! We have been waiting for those words since JBANC was created in 196l! We will remember those words and expect your successors to abide by them as well.
We remember the recent words of President Havel of the Czech Republic, who said that NATO enlargement is "a clear signal given, not only for all Europeans, but for the entire world, that the era when countries were divided by force into spheres of influence, or when the stronger used to subjugate the weaker, has come to an end once and for all." JBANC is proud to have had a part in helping to create a Europe whole and free, a trans-Atlantic community allied with the United States of America. That task is not yet complete and we will continue to help. In the words of Baltic Caucus Co-Chair, Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, "we are completing the task begun in 1948 - to establish a peaceful Europe whose security is upheld by our joint military power and by our common commitment to the principles of freedom." Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware added that the Prague Summit "has changed forever the political face of Europe." And so it has.
And the peoples of the Baltics, Baltic Americans and JBANC are grateful.
(Chairman’s Corner, JBANC Chronicle, Winter 2002)