WHITE HOUSE EQUIVOCATES ON BALTIC ACCESSION TO NATO.

Baltic presidents on a joint official visit to the U.S. said yesterday that president Bill Clinton told them at their White House meeting that "the first countries admitted to NATO will not be the last." Rather than addressing the issue of Baltic admission specifically, the U.S. president was cited as holding out the prospect of admission for all democratic states. Reportedly no timetable was mentioned. The three presidents had stated before the meeting that their chief goal was to obtain assurances regarding their countries’ early admission to NATO. (Reuter, June 27; BNS, June 26) The Baltic states have come to implicitly accept that they will not be included in the first round with Poland, the Czech republic and Hungary, but seek assurances of admission in an early second round.

Gore to Visit Moscow.