LITHUANIA FOR INDIVISIBLE SECURITY.

At a news conference in Vilnius, Lithuanian foreign minister Povilas Gylys called for equal treatment of the candidacies of Central European and Baltic countries for accession to NATO, urging the alliance to apply the concept of "indivisible security" to the entire area. The Baltic States´ accession to NATO would help prevent the division of Europe into blocs, not promote it, Gylys remarked. He welcomed the U.S. State Department´s statement the previous week rejecting any Russian claim to reintroduce troops in the Baltic countries, as envisaged in a widely reported draft of Russia´s new military doctrine and discussed by Russian politicians. Terming West German chancellor Helmut Kohl´s recent remarks on a Western "moral debt" to the Baltic countries "very touching," Gylys suggested that the debt could best be repaid by supporting these countries´ integration with the West. (11)

Gylys´ remarks indirectly rebut the view of some Western officials that the Baltic countries may only be considered for accession to NATO after the Central European countries, if at all. They also reflect the sentiment in Baltic capitals that they must sometimes prod Western powers into discouraging Russian pressure on them. According to Lithuanian sources, that country´s Washington embassy had requested the State Department to take a position on the Russian military threats.

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