LUGAR CALLS FOR REASSURANCE ON ADMISSION TO NATO.

U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, completing a visit to the Baltic states, said that the Baltic presidents and other senior officials had voiced their concern about NATO’s apparent reluctance to include them in the first round of NATO enlargement. Lugar called for NATO to adopt "a vision encompassing all countries which consider themselves a part of the Western world and seek to join its institutions." In Baltic and German press interviews, Lugar also stressed that countries which will not be included among the first new members of NATO must be given guarantees that they will be admitted later on, so as to avoid the perception that "gray zones" are being created. (BNS, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 1)

Lugar’s remarks apparently reflect the spirit of a recent Congressional resolution which suggested admission of Central European countries ahead of others, and seem to suggest a special status be granted to the Baltic states pending their eventual admission to NATO in a follow-up stage.

Repressive Measures in Belarus.