DENMARK, ROMANIA SUPPORT BALTICS’ ENTRY INTO NATO AND EU.

Danish foreign minister Niels Helvig Petersen, at a news conference held shortly after returning from Estonia, voiced strong support for the Baltic states’ becoming members of the European Union and NATO. He said that he had asked Estonia to apply for membership to the EU in time for its application to be considered at that body’s inter-governmental conference in 1996, and that the Balts should not be excluded from NATO expansion, which he thought would secure stability throughout the region.

Following two days of talks in Bucharest, Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas and Romanian president Ion Iliescu said at a press conference on Tuesday that any country which chooses to join NATO should be able to do so, and that no other country should have the ability to exercise veto power over that decision. The two leaders also pointed out that peace and stability in Eastern Europe would be in Russia’s best interest.

IN PERSPECTIVE: