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President of Republic at a Reception Honouring 60 Years of United States Commitment to Baltic Independence Washington, D.C., 14 June 2000
14.06.2000

Members of Congress,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

On a beautiful summer day 59 years ago - I was a boy of twelve - I started in a boxcar a long journey from my native Estonia to Siberia. You don't start a trip in a boxcar to enjoy the landscapes of that immense territory. I was deported by the Soviets who considered my father, like several hundred thousands of other Estonians, or Latvians, or Lithuanians a threat to the totalitarian regime. We were taken out of our beds at night, we were separated at night, and it was under the dark cover of night that my political career began - something I became aware of half a century later.

However, there was some light in the endless darkness of despair and terror which followed. A year before we were deported by the Red Army, US Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles made a brief statement after Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were occupied by the Soviet armed forces. Sumner Welles said that the United States did not recognize the Soviet annexation of the three independent Baltic states.

Was this an idealistic step? Would it have been wiser to accept the fait accompli?

The answer is simple: The policy of non-recognition, introduced through this historic statement, was a decision of principle and reflected the underlying values of American society. Your commitment to the captive peoples of Europe was our light of hope during the darkest period of our history.

Fifty years later your policy of non-recognition provided us with the legal foundation to restore our common democratic values, which led to the restoration of our independence and the downfall of the Communist empire.

Principles are the only real weapons of democracy.

To give you another example. Was Secretary of State Dean Acheson a blue-eyed idealist in 1949, when he overruled West-European pragmatists, telling them that NATO would not be created without Norway, Denmark, tiny Iceland and even Italy, which only a couple of years previously became a member of the democratic community? All these countries later became key allies for the United States and played their part in expanding the transatlantic belt of democracy and world security.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Just a month ago in Vilnius nine nations from Central and Eastern Europe presented western decision makers a new reality, a new vision for NATO. Worried that the need to secure the Cold War victory was dropping out of the allies' agenda and that NATO was turning to new challenges they issued a joint appeal, which called for a decision to invite all of them into the alliance in 2002. We should always remind ourselves that the enlargement of NATO is not a beauty contest. It is about a centuries old dream of the completion of Europe, it is about the core values of democracy and freedom, stability and collective security. As Dean Acheson said at the Harvard Alumni Association five decades ago ''[the North Atlantic Treaty] has advanced international cooperation to maintain the peace, to advance human rights, to raise standards of living, and to promote respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples''. This is what I believe NATO enlargement is all about.

While flying West from Estonia on my way to Washington, I recalled the 14th of June, 1941 - the day I traveled East against my will. Now I have come to the U.S. as President of Estonia. Thinking of these two journeys I am convinced that the grand vision is not only possible but truly realistic.

Thank you.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today's occasion is a fitting setting to honor a long-standing friend and promoter of both the Baltic nations and of NATO enlargement.

Congressman Gerald Solomon, a long-time member of Congress and the honorary chairman of the Baltic Caucus has worked tirelessly to make our vision a reality. For many years he was actively engaged in making our part of the world free and more secure by working to speed up the Russian troop withdrawal and later to promote Baltic NATO membership. Now that he has left the House of Representatives after twenty years of service I think it is time for us to honor him, and what better occasion could we wish for than the event today, where we say 'thank you' to the United States.

I hereby have the honor of bestowing the Cross of Terra Mariana on Gerald Brooks Hunt Solomon for the services he has rendered to Estonia.

Thank you.

 

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