The Baltic states (catch all)

[Stan]

AFP, April 18, 2007 reports

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have decided to ask NATO to continue patrolling their skies until 2018, when the three alliance newcomers expect to take over the job, an official said Friday.
"The chiefs of the Baltic defence forces decided to ask NATO to continue with the current air defence solution at least until 2018, under which other NATO members patrol our skies," Estonian military spokesman Andres Sang told AFP after a meeting of Baltic army leaders in Estonia.
"Meanwhile, the Baltic states will continue joint activities to enhance their air defence capabilities," Sang said.
"We will continue the development of the joint radar system Baltnet, carry on joint training and devise more long-term plans on how to carry on after 2018," he said.
The formal request to NATO will be made by the three governments later in the year, he said.

The current agreement over the NATO patrols runs out next year.
More established members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have taken turns patrolling the air space of the three Baltic states since March 2004, when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined the alliance.
Currently, France is policing the Baltic skies. Romania is due to take over in August.
The Baltic states, which regained their independence from the Soviet Union 16 years ago, lack sufficient aircraft and personnel to run the patrols themselves.

[Stan]

This morning the Cato Institute made the argument that NATO should rethink its commitments to the Baltics.

Seems the isolationists at CATO have concluded that the Baltics are worthless and don't merit defense.

Indeed, a crisis could result if a future Russian president concludes that NATO's mere presence in the Baltic region is an intolerable intrusion into Moscow's rightful sphere of influence.

Sphere of influence ? A quick scan at Wikipedia, defines an SOI as "an area or region over which an organization or state exerts some kind of indirect cultural, economic, military or political domination." At least Wiki doesn't list Estonia under the Russian sphere of influence.

In any case, the U.S. should never have undertaken military commitments to the Baltic republics. These obligations are a dangerous liability, and the U.S. must extricate itself from them.

A tad too late methinks ! I'm sure NATO thought long and hard about assistance to the Baltic States and concluded it was in fact feasible to defend. An attack on the Baltics would be a disaster for Europe with tens of thousands of refugees and a financial burden on Sweden and Finland.

Regards, Stan