UKRAINE, BALTS LOOK WEST.

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma andLatvian president Guntis Ulmanis said that they believed that threats andpressures from a certain “bordering state” were prompting ever more countriesto seek membership in stable political alliances, BNS reported May 24. In theirjoint statement at the end of Kuchma’s visit to Riga, the two called for an”evolutionary” expansion of NATO to the east. But neither Kuchma nor Ulmanisbelieved that his own country would be in NATO soon.

Ukrainian armed forces chief Lt. Gen. Anatoly Lopata said the sameday that Ukrainian membership in NATO was “unrealistic” in the near future,Interfax reported. But 400 Ukrainian soldiers are now participating with 300American ones in the first-ever Partnership for Peace joint exercises in westernUkraine. And a German general arrived in Tallinn to help the Estonian militaryprepare to meet NATO military standards, BNS reported May 24.

Belarusian Students Protest New National Symbols.