May 3, 2001 contact: Karl Altau Washington, DC (JBANC) Five Senators have indicated that they will join Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) as part of the Congressional delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Vilnius on May 27-31. Prior to the Vilnius meeting, Sen. Smith is also travelling to Tallinn and Riga. The Senate delegation can have a maximum of eight Members. Please let your Senator know about the trip being organized by Sen. Smith and ask them to join the delegation. Also, it is important to have members also travel with Sen. Smith to both Tallinn and Riga. This is an excellent opportunity for members of the Senate and their staffs to get acquainted with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Letters of encouragement to Senators Smith would also be very helpful (The Honorable ….., United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510). For more information, please call the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (tel. 202-224-4651), or JBANC. There is also a House delegation being organized by Congressman Doug Bereuter (R-NE) travelling to the Parliamentary Assembly plenary session in Vilnius. The Bereuter delegation is larger than the Senate one, but at this time, not all the names of the members are known. Founder and co-chair of the House Baltic Caucus Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) plans to also be on the trip and visit the other Baltic capitals. Besides Rep. Shimkus, it is not known if other Congressmen intend to visit Tallinn or Riga. Congressman Bereuter’s delegation will also travel to Slovakia and Bulgaria. For more information on the work of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, please visit their homepage at: www.naa.be |
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