Balkan NATO membership moves on the table at meeting with Baltics, US

Balkan NATO membership moves on the table at meeting with Baltics, US
3 February 2007 05:14 FOCUS News Agency

Tallinn. Balkan foreign and defence ministers will meet their Baltic counterparts and senior US officials in the Estonian capital next week to discuss their drive towards NATO membership, AFP points out. "Regional security issues in the Western Balkans will be discussed, and how they affect the security of Europe more generally," Ehtel Halliste, spokeswoman for the Estonian foreign ministry, told AFP. Estonia and its fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania joined the alliance in 2004, some 13 years after regaining their independence from the Soviet Union. Their membership moves sparked fierce opposition from Moscow, which was unhappy about what it saw as NATO encroachment on its former turf. At the meeting on Monday and Tuesday, the Baltic trio want to share their experience and give potential Balkan newcomers to the 26-nation alliance a leg up.