Washington, DC (JBANC) – Over 25,000 signatures have been gathered by Baltic-American organizations asking President Bush to support the membership of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into NATO at the Prague Summit in 2002. The Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. (JBANC), together with representatives of other Baltic American organizations, intends to present the petitions to the Administration on September 10. If you are a United States citizen and would like to sign the petition and have not yet done so, please contact JBANC by September 9.
The petitions are available upon request from JBANC (tel. 301-340-1954 or jbanc@jbanc.org) and can also be downloaded from the web at: http://jbanc.org/petition.html. There, you will also find directions for submitting petitions electronically. Nearly 1000 citizens have submitted their names by this method. Coordination by local, statewide and national Baltic-American organizations and many individual citizens across the nation has been instrumental in the petition-gathering effort. PETITION TEXT: Since it has been established that the enlargement of NATO is in the interest of the United States in securing peace and stability; and since the United States has consistently supported the enlargement of NATO as a national policy and has supported the quest of the aspiring nations that have signed a joint resolution in Vilnius May 2000 to that effect; Therefore, we now urge you, Mr. President, to activate the above stated policy of these United States and invite such aspiring nations to NATO membership and that the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania be included in such invitation at the NATO summit in 2002. |
Octobr 17, 2008 - President Bush Discusses the Visa Waiver Program Office of the Press Secretary/ White House News  THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. (Applause.) Please be seated, thank you. Welcome to the White House. I'm pleased to stand with the representatives of seven countries -- the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and South Korea -- that have met the requirements to be admitted to the United States Visa Waiver Program. Soon the citizens of these nations will be able to travel to the United States for business or tourism without a visa. I congratulate these close friends and allies on this achievement, and I thank you for joining us here.I also thank Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of the Homeland -- Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff for working hard to make sure this day has finally arrived. Appreciate other members of the administration here and members of the Diplomatic Corps. More... 400 Hurley Avenue Rockville, MD 20850-3121 tel. 301-340-1954 fax: 301-309-1406 e-mail:jbanc@jbanc.org |