Centennial of Diplomatic Relations with the Baltics

Prepared Statement Submitted into the Record by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Centennial of Diplomatic Relations with the Baltics

Thursday, July 28, 2022

 

Today is a very important date for the relations between the United States and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

 

Today marks 100 years of continuous, uninterrupted diplomatic relations between our country and each of the Baltic countries.

 

Let me explain why I emphasize continuous, uninterrupted diplomatic relations.

 

Last Saturday marked 82 years since acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles issued a declaration that is remembered to this day in each of the Baltic countries.

 

Soviet troops had entered the Baltic states, arrested leaders and organized rigged elections to create pro-Soviet government.

 

The Welles Declaration decried the “devious processes whereunder the political independence and territorial integrity of the three small Baltic Republics – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – were to be deliberately annihilated by one of their more powerful neighbors.”

 

It was a clear, principled statement that the United States would not recognize Soviet control over these countries as legitimate.

 

During the 50 years the Soviet Union forcibly occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, diplomats from each of the Baltic states continued their work in the United States, and we continued to recognize them as independent, sovereign countries under foreign occupation.

 

The Soviet Union justified sending troops to the Baltics on the basis of the threat from Nazi Germany. However, just a year before, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Nazis and Soviets contained a secret protocol whereby Hitler and Stalin agreed to carve up their neighbors into “spheres of influence.” 

 

Under this agreement, the Baltics, Finland, Eastern Poland, and what is now Moldova would be controlled by the Soviet Union and the rest of Poland would go to Germany.

 

Finland was able to fight back in the Winter War, retaining its sovereignty but losing significant territory to Russia.

 

The rest of the pact played out just as Stalin and Hitler agreed.

 

This isn’t just history. This is directly relevant to Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric, attitude and actions in Ukraine.

 

He believes he has a right to a sphere of influence over his neighbors just like Stalin and Hitler thought.

 

To this day, Putin maintains that the three Baltics joined the Soviet Union in 1940 and ceased to exist as countries until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

 

The Russian Duma has even threatened to repeal a Soviet law recognizing Lithuania’s independence from the USSR – what a joke!

 

Let’s be clear- the Baltic states are not former Soviet republics. They have been independent countries for over a century.

 

Following in Stalin’s footsteps, Putin justifies attacking Ukraine, at least to audiences outside of Russia, as a reaction to NATO encroaching on Russia.

 

Putin casts NATO as a threat, even making up a claim that NATO was planning to put missiles in Ukraine targeting Russia.

 

The fact is, even our eastern flank allies in NATO do not currently have the kinds of defensive missiles they would need to repel a Russian invasion, which is unfortunate.

 

Currently, we have meager “tripwire” forces that are insufficient to stop the kind of invasion we saw in Ukraine in February.

 

Russia’s military leaders know that NATO cannot begin to threaten Russian territory.

 

There were no allied reinforcements in any NATO country bordering Russia until the invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

 

Ukraine was militarily neutral then, but seeking economic ties with the European Union, thus slipping away from economic dependency on Russia.

 

The fact that NATO has become attractive to Ukraine since Russia seized Crimea and part of the Donbas is a threat not to the territory of the Russian Federation, but to Russia’s imperial desire for a sphere of influence.

 

Putin blames Ukraine’s westward turn on provocations by Western Intelligence Agencies, failing to recognize that Ukrainians are making their own choices.

 

Just like in 1940, the United States has refused to recognize another Russian occupation of a sovereign country as legitimate.

 

We were once a small collection of colonies seeking to chart our own, independent course free from European empires.

 

That’s why the Welles Declaration expressed admiration for the Baltic countries as they pursued self-government and democracy.

 

That’s why the Welles Declaration made clear that the people of the United States oppose intervention or the use of force by large or powerful countries on smaller, weaker ones.

 

That principle applies today to Ukraine.

 

No one should decide Ukraine’s fate expect the Ukrainian people.

 

True to our principles, the United States can never, directly or tacitly, consign Ukraine to Russia’s sphere of influence.

 

As we celebrate 100 years of excellent diplomatic relations with our Baltic allies, there is no doubt in retrospect that we were right to stand up for their sovereignty even when that seemed hopeless, even foolish.

 

50 years of Russian occupation could not turn them into Russians just as centuries of Russification policies have not convinced Ukrainians to accept the Russian view that they are just “little Russians.”