BALTS CONCERNED BY POSSIBLE YALTA-TWO.

Receiving U.S. Ambassador Larry Napper yesterday, Latvian president Guntis Ulmanis expressed "concern over the uncertain position of some Western countries regarding Russia’s efforts to reestablish a sphere of influence on the former USSR’s territory." In Washington yesterday, the participants in a Baltic-U.S. conference on Baltic security similarly expressed "deep concern that the Baltic states could again become bargaining chips in a replay of the [1945] Yalta conference." Napper in Riga and senior State Department and National Security Council officials in Washington assured the Balts that this would not be the case. However, the U.S. officials stopped short of reassuring the Baltic states of being admitted to NATO, appearing instead to maintain the ambiguity which prompts the Baltic states’ concerns in the first place. (BNS, March 11)

Ukrainian, Moldovan Presidents Agree on Customs Union and Transdniester Conflict Settlement.