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Baltic Leaders Expected To Ask Trump To Bolster Defenses Against Russia

RFE/RL April 03, 2018

The presidents of three Baltic states are expected to ask U.S. President Donald Trump to do more to deter Russia by bolstering U.S. forces on NATO's eastern flank at a White House meeting scheduled for April 3.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, and Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis are among the strongest critics of Russia in the European Union and are visiting Trump amid mixed signals about his intentions toward the Kremlin.

While Washington recently imposed a new round of sanctions targeting Russian individuals, companies, and intelligence agencies, and also expelled 60 Russian diplomatic staff in reaction to Moscow's alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, Trump personally suggested a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call last month.

A senior Lithuanian official told the AFP news agency that the three Baltic leaders will ask Trump to send Patriot long-range antiaircraft missiles more frequently for war games in the Baltic states. The official said they also want to become a part of NATO's larger European antimissile shield.

"I hope that the United States and other allies understand that the airspace of the Baltic states must be better protected and defended," Lithuania's Grybauskaite told her country's public broadcaster LRT ahead of the visit.

"It is important that [U.S. troops] are here on a permanent rotational basis in all Baltic states," she said.

Last year, NATO deployed four multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states as tripwires against possible Russian adventurism, while the U.S. military sent a Patriot battery to Lithuania for drills.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in July raised the possibility of deploying Patriots in nearby Estonia.

Citizens of the Baltic states were rattled by Trump's campaign rhetoric in 2016 questioning NATO's relevance and his unwillingness to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin, public opinion polls showed.

But polls showed the public mood changed after Trump decided to boost funding for U.S. forces in Europe and provide antitank missiles to Ukraine to defend against Russia-backed separatists.

Trump, who has repeatedly attacked other European allies for failing to meet NATO's targeted level of defense spending, is expected to praise the Baltic presidents for agreeing to spend two percent of gross domestic product on defense, as agreed by the military alliance.

"The president wants to show that these countries are setting standards where we want to see allies moving in terms of defense," said Anne Hall, the U.S. ambassador to Lithuania.

The Baltic-U.S. summit will also include a business forum where Lithuania plans to sign deals to boost imports of liquefied natural gas from the United States to reduce reliance on Russian gas.

The Baltic states, with a combined population of just six million people, were occupied and annexed by Moscow during World War II.

The trio broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 and joined both the European Union and NATO in 2004.

With reporting by AP and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/baltic-presidents-expected -ask-trump-bolster-defenses-against-russia-lithuania- latvia-estonia/29141389.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.