WAR.WIRE
NATO not planning military bases in the Baltics, official says
VILNIUS (AFP) Sep 13, 2004
NATO does not plan to establish military bases in Baltic countries, a senior NATO official said Monday in Vilnius.

"There are no action plans for that," General Harald Kujat, chairman of NATO's military committee told a press briefing here.

The issue of possible NATO military bases in Baltic countries, after they joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in March, has been a sensitive one for Moscow, which opposed the former Soviet-bloc states joining the alliance.

Kujat was in Lithuania with members of the NATO military committee, which provides guidance and advice on military policy and strategy to the alliance's political leaders and commanders.

The Lithuanian capital was the last stop on the committee's three-day visit to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.