An Enhanced Partnership

As a member of very large bureaucracy, I have found it a rare experience to see a government program end. Even more rare is to see a program end not because it has failed or lost political support, but because it met all its objectives. Yet, I am pleased to report just such an occasion.

On October 15, Deputy Assistant Secretary Heather Conley declared at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, a successful end to the Northern Europe Initiative (NEI). NEI's goal was to work with countries in Northern Europe to integrate fully Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into a free Europe, including the major European and trans-Atlantic institutions. Its goal was to end forever any doubts about whether the Baltic States belonged to "Europe."

Heaven knows the United States government was but one player in this effort. The Nordic countries were very active, as was the European Union. The roles of all these actors, however, were much smaller than that of the three Baltic States' governments and their people.

The Baltic States' emergence as fully democratic, free-market societies, aligned with like-minded nations, only happened because it's what you wanted. Estonia's hard work in meeting the requirements to become a member of NATO and of the EU testifies to this; and my nation congratulates yours on these achievements.

In the October 15 event, Bush Administration officials responsible for Northern Europe joined with those from the Clinton Administration, who formulated the Northern Europe Initiative to celebrate success.

In that same event, the Administration introduced the "Enhanced Partnership in Northern Europe" or e-Pine. The purpose of the partnership is to build on success. The Baltic States are now full members of the region. The region itself is the most politically successful and economically the fastest growing in Europe.

The countries of the region are the sorts of partners we need in order to address the challenges of this century. Some of these challenges are ones that we must confront on a global scale, including the threat of terrorism, and the related threat of the spread of weapons of mass destruction – an area of endeavor that e-Pine categorizes as "political security." We will be consulting with the eight countries in the region on these pressing security topics.

The partnership also encompasses efforts in building "healthy societies and healthy neighbors." Where the Baltic States have succeeded in dealing with building civil society and functioning democracies, some of your neighbors have struggled. As partners, Nordic nations, Baltic nations, and the United States must work together not only to improve relations with the neighbors, but also to help those nations succeed. Some trans-boundary problems afflict us all.

The U.S., the countries of Northern Europe and their neighbors all are battling HIV/AIDS, and are all discovering that are nations are being affected by a criminal web that traffics children across international borders for sexual purposes. We believe we are more likely to defeat these scourges if we pool our resources and our knowledge.

Finally, my government believes the U.S trade and investment ties with the region have not reached their potential. The third U.S. area of interest in a new partnership with the countries of this region is to build better economic ties that reflect this region's excellent economic growth record.

With the NATO and EU invitations last November, and the successful EU referenda in the three Baltic States this year, this region has changed forever and for the better. The programs we crafted to help those countries emerge from the ruins of the Soviet Union have served their purpose honorably. What takes their place will be decided in the course of discussions with our new full partners in the region.

The first such set of consultations took place on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York last month. Over the course of this year and next, the partners will develop concrete efforts to deal with challenges in the areas of security, trans-national problems and economics. It is time to build on success. We could not ask for better partners in the process.