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On Friday July 23, Valdis Dombrovskis, Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia, Andrus Ansip, Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia, and Andrius Kuilius, Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania, sent a letter to Barack Obama, President of the Unites States of America, to mark the 70th anniversary since the former U.S. Secretary of State Sumner Welles adopted a declaration by which the United States did not recognise the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union in 1940.
In this letter the Baltic Prime Ministers noted:
„This summer marks 70 years since the three Baltic nation lost their cherished freedom and independence which they managed to restore half a century later. That day would not have come without the principled foreign policy of the United States of America.
On July 23, 1949, the acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles began a long-lasting non-recognition policy of illegal Soviet occupation and annexation which enabled the diplomatic representation of the Baltic States to continue working and gave their people strength and hope to go on campaigning for their freedom.
We, the Prime Ministers of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to the American people for their courageous and highly moral action and congratulate you, Mr. President, on this anniversary of successful foreign policy that has made the United States of America a beacon of freedom for all oppressed nations and aspiring democracies.”
Meanwhile, on July 20, in honour of the 70th anniversary since the United States started its de iure non-recognition of occupation of the Baltic States, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement in which she, on behalf of President Barack Obama and the American people, reaffirmed close ties between Latvia and the USA.
See in Apendix: copy of the letter of Valdis Dombrovskis, Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia, Andrus Ansip, Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia, and Andrius Kuilius, Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania (in English).
Information prepared by:
Liena Muraškina, Consultant of the Communication Department
State Chancellery, Phone: 67082828 / 26300702
E-mail: Liena.Muraskina@mk.gov.lv, www.mk.gov.lv
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