TALLINN, Estonia — In a speech delivered from Tallinn, Estonia on August 3, United States President Barack Obama reassured the Baltic states of the U.S.’s full support against a potentially aggressive Russia. The speech comes the day before a two-day NATO summit in Wales during which plans for adding troops to Eastern Europe’s borders will be discussed.
“We’ll be here for Estonia. We’ll be here for Latvia. We’ll be here for Lithuania,” Obama promised in his speech. “You lost your independence once before. With NATO, you’ll never lose it again.”
Though he used strong language, he neglected to say for certain if NATO would enhance its military support for the Baltic states.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO secretary-general, explains that after the April annexation of Crimea, NATO immediately made plans for a response force, and those plans have already been put into action.
What is being currently debated is the implementation of a spearhead force, which is a specially trained group of soldiers who would be able to respond to any aggression within 48 hours.
It will be “provided by allies in rotation,” Rasmussen says, “and could include several thousand troops, ready to respond where needed with air, sea, and special-forces support.”
The soldiers would be prepared to defend NATO alliance countries from the unconventional fighting methods used in Ukraine: funding of separatist groups, social media and intimidation.
The Baltic states—Estonia, Lithuania and Lativa—and Poland are all home to a large Russian ethnic minority, and have been fearful of a Russian take-over since the crisis in Ukraine began. At a recent European Union summit, Baltic state leaders expressed their desire for support.
Dalia Grybauskaite, president of Lithuania, went as far to say that Russia was “at war with Europe.”
The president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, is equally as desperate for NATO support, especially in the wake of the leak of information from Putin.
In a phone conversation with Jose Manuel Barroso, the outgoing president of the European Commission, Vladimir Putin reportedly said that he had it within is power to take over Kiev with ease. The leak has not been expressly denied by the Kremlin, but Russian foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov said: “This is incorrect, and is outside all the normal framework of diplomatic practice, if he did say it.”
Despite Putin’s comment, which Barroso shared at the EU summit, Ukraine is not receiving the same level of support as is promised in the plans for the Baltic states.
“NATO’s planning is all about how to defend allies, not partners like Ukraine,” a senior military official at NATO said. “NATO is not going to launch a defense capacity-building mission in Ukraine.”
Obama has used similar words to describe the U.S. position towards Ukraine: “We are not taking any military action to solve the Ukrainian problem.”
Instead, heavy sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe have sent the Russian economy on a downward spiral.
It is not surprising the Baltic states want more from NATO than sanctions. While the numbers show the impact of the sanctions on the Russian economy, they have done little to improve the situation in Ukraine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has called the situation in rebel-held areas of Ukraine “critical – thousands of people are reported to be without access to water, electricity and medical aid”.
The city of Luhank, located in eastern Ukraine and currently under rebel-control and a government siege, had a population of 425,000 before the crisis and now only 250,000 remain.
A United Nations report puts the number of casualties since mid-April at 2,119 people, but that is a low estimate, as it does not account for victims informally buried.
Angela Merkel, German chancellor, said at the EU summit that Putin may have his eye on the Baltic states as his next targets. As all three are members of both the EU and NATO, as well as the single currency zone, a similar humanitarian crisis there could mean the downfall of Europe.
Obama’s speech in Tallinn was meant as reassurance that NATO protects the Baltic states and that the entire Nato alliance, stands behind them.
“You never gave up through a long occupation that tried to break your spirit and crush your culture,” Obama said in his speech. “Their tanks were no equal to the moral power of your voices… Citizens, like nations, will never settle for a world where the big are allowed to bully the small. Sooner or later they fight back. Democracy will win.”
– Julianne O’Connor
Sources: BBC, White House Blog, The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2, The Guardian 3, The Guardian 4
Photo: Time