Washington, DC (JBANC) - Senate Hearings on NATO Enlargement are scheduled to begin next week. The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee will thus begin the process of ratifying the NATO Protocols of Accession, to amend the NATO Treaty. It is hoped that the Senate will vote on NATO enlargement in the coming months, possibly by late spring or early summer.

To help put the issue onto the radar screen of your Senator, please ask him or her to support the coming round of NATO enlargement, to include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Trans-Atlantic Alliance. Calls over the next few weeks are important, since the debate is now beginning.

Calls and faxes to the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees are also needed.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee:  (Republican staff) tel. 202-224-4651, fax 202-228-1608;
(Democratic staff) tel. 202-224-3953, fax 202-228-3612
Armed Services Committee tel. 202-224-3871

§       A Senate Directory can be found online at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
§       An updated phone list of all Senators can be downloaded at: http://www.senate.gov/general/resources/pdf/senators_phone_list.pdf
§       For background information, please visit the JBANC webpage http://jbanc.org and http://expandnato.org
§       The Hearings may be televised on C-Span: http://www.c-span.org

Text of March 21 JBANC letter to Members of both Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committee:

On behalf of one million Americans of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian heritage, the Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. (JBANC) asks for your support for NATO enlargement ratification during upcoming Senate deliberation. We ask for your endorsement for the seven invited aspirant countries, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

In the twelve years following the restoration of their independence, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have carried out impressive economic, political and military reforms.

All three Baltic countries have actively participated in peacekeeping missions in the Balkans and in Afghanistan and are also committed to serving alongside the United States and its Allies in the rebuilding of Iraq. As part of the coalition of the willing these countries are committed to giving not only political but moral, material and tactical support to the United States.

We look forward to working with you in supporting the partnership and cooperation between the United States, its NATO Allies and the three Baltic countries as they integrate further with Western democratic institutions. This will help cement the security and stability so long sought after in that region.

(Signed by JBANC Chairman John Bolsteins.)

Senate Foreign Relations Committee

108^th Congress