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Obama to Visit Estonia to Reassure Baltic Allies Over Russia - New York Times

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Europe |Obama to Visit Estonia to Reassure Baltic Allies Over Russia



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Europe |​​NYT Now






KEFLAVIK, Iceland — With concerns rising about Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, President Obama will use a visit to neighboring Estonia on Wednesday to reassure fretful allies that the United States and Europe are serious about defending them from a newly aggressive Russia.


Just over a year after Mr. Obama told Baltic leaders at the White House that NATO’s commitment to their security was “rock-solid,” his visit to Estonia is an effort to reinforce that message, while telegraphing to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that he should refrain from further meddling in the region.



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On the eve of a NATO summit meeting in Wales where members are expected to endorse a rapid-reaction force capable of deploying quickly to Eastern Europe — their most concrete response yet to Russia’s stealth military intervention in Ukraine — Mr. Obama is seeking to solidify assurances to the alliance’s new front line, including nations with large Russian-speaking populations, that no member is too small to be protected.


The president said last week that his stop in Estonia was intended “to let the Estonians know that we mean what we say with respect to our treaty obligations.” It will include a meeting with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who has been outspoken about calling for a firmer Western response to Mr. Putin, as well as Latvia’s president, Andris Berzins, and the president of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite.


Mr. Obama “wants to send the signal that these three Baltic states are as central and important to the way we look at European security and defense as any other NATO member, that there’s no difference between Estonia or Great Britain when it comes to the security of Estonia or Great Britain,” said Ivo H. Daalder, a former ambassador to NATO who is now the head of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.


In sessions with the Baltic presidents, a speech to students, young professionals and civil society and political leaders, and a visit to American and Estonian troops here, Mr. Obama will also demonstrate to the world, and Russia in particular, that the former Soviet republics are wrapped securely within NATO’s protective embrace.


“The other message that’s being sent is to Vladimir Putin, to say, ‘Don’t even think about it, because these guys are part of this alliance.’ ” Mr. Daalder said.


Taavi Roivas, the Estonian prime minister, with whom Mr. Obama will meet on Wednesday, said the American president’s very presence — far afield from the Wales summit meeting, which was the original purpose of his European trip — would be an important signal in light of Russia’s recent moves.


“I’m definitely confident that President Obama brings a clear message on the American side,” Mr. Roivas said in an interview. “It’s really important for us that he comes, so others see the U.S. commitment in the region.”


Even before this week’s expected agreement on a rapid-response force, Mr. Roivas said NATO was moving in the “right direction,” bringing more air policing over the Baltics and more exercises in Estonia.


“I have rock-solid confidence in NATO’s Article 5,” he said, referring to the principle of collective defense that undergirds the alliance.


At the same time, the trip is a chance for Mr. Obama to showcase the kind of financial commitment he is seeking from other NATO members as the alliance grapples with an eroded defense capability because of shrinking military budgets. The United States is responsible for 75 percent of NATO military spending, and only a handful of European countries meet the alliance’s target of having military budgets of 2 percent of gross domestic product. Estonia is the only one of the Baltic States to meet that goal.


Mr. Obama’s visit underscores the degree to which Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine have “brought us closer together,” said R. Nicholas Burns, a former American ambassador to NATO and State Department official during George W. Bush’s administration, who now teaches international relations at the Harvard Kennedy School.


The United States quickly recognized the Baltic States’ independence in 1991, even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and has had strong ties with them for three decades.


“We always kept faith with them, and they have always remembered that it was the U.S. that stood up for them,” Mr. Burns said. “The American president has huge credibility in Tallinn and in Riga, and it’s a great opportunity for President Obama to, in the most clear way, say that when we took you in in 2002, we meant it, and now that there’s a crisis, I’m here.” Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, and Riga the capital of Latvia.


But leaders in the Baltic States and elsewhere in Europe are also looking to Mr. Obama and to NATO for concrete assurances that the commitment to defending them will be lasting, and are eager to hear a longer-term strategy toward Russia to address the challenges it is posing to the postwar order.


“They’re concerned this is temporary, that we have so many things going on — we’re already being pulled away from Ukraine because of Iraq and Syria, can they count on our commitment and our engagement for the long term?” said Heather A. Conley, a State Department official under Mr. Bush who now directs the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research organization in Washington.


“A speech will get you a little bit,” Ms. Conley added, “but it’s the physical, it’s the U.S. soldier that’s in Estonia, it’s the F-16 that’s flying over Baltic air space, it’s the Marine presence, that really will make the difference.”



Steven Erlanger contributed reporting.




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