At the Meeting of the EAPC Luxembourg 29 May 1998

Intervention of Mr. Maris Riekstins State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Mr. Chairman, Confidence building, needs to be considered in a broad political context. The exchange of information on regional cooperation that has taken place during this first year of EAPC is certainly a positive contribution to increased confidence. Speaking specifically on confidence building in the region of the Baltic Sea, I would like to stress two basic points. Firstly, whilst there have been numerous initiatives concerning an improvement of confidence in the Baltic region, they must have the consent of all countries that might be affected and involved. Secondly, it is imperative that every country can freely choose its security arrangements. In view of Latvia's aspirations to integrate fully into the Euro Atlantic security space, the major enhancement of confidence building for Latvia would be the realisation of NATO's open door policy. Regional cooperation amongst the three Baltic countries, cooperation with our Nordic neighbours and the wider cooperation under the auspices of the Council of the Baltic Sea States - our experience shows that they all help to enhance confidence. The potential for interaction can be realised in numerous ways - through promoting political dialogue, trade and investment, through combating organised crime, through focusing on nuclear safety and environmental protection, or by encouraging cross border and people to people contacts. Latvia attaches particular importance to the engagement of Russia in such regional confidence building. It supplements Russia's involvement in confidence building in other multilateral fora. It also builds on measures that can be achieved on a bilateral level, such as the signing of a border agreement, which Latvia has been ready and willing to sign for some time now. Yet the potential for bilateral and regional cooperation is often exploited in an unbalanced manner between the countries in the region. Turning to military confidence building measures, which sometimes appear as part of the above-mentioned initiatives, I would like to repeat that these are only one part of broader confidence and security. The main forum for examining such measures is of course the OSCE. This is a broad Euro-Atlantic forum, where equality of expression and the possibility for every participating nation to receive equal treatment exists. It has tradition and expertise in the field of CSBMs. The OSCE Vienna Document of 1994 provides the framework, and further use of this instrument provides the means. Latvia is examining possible unilateral military confidence building measures that go beyond the Vienna Document and could contribute to enhanced confidence between states. However, the regional setting is not the place to consider military measures. They need to be considered within the framework of security in Europe being indivisible. Only our membership in NATO would provide the sound springboard for possible consideration of military confidence building measures in the region. Finally, Mr Chairman, Latvia's experience during recent months has shown that measures taken unilaterally can also have a beneficial affect on confidence building within the region. I refer here to Latvia's close cooperation with the OSCE, which resulted in the Government's decision to adopt the recommendations of the High Commissioner on National Minorities, Max van der Stoel relating to citizenship. Thus measures adopted internally in close collaboration with a multilateral organisation have helped to considerably enhance confidence in Latvia and the surrounding region. Thank you, Mr Chairman