To Reassure Baltic Allies, Obama Will Visit Estonia

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, NYT, AUG. 15, 2014

WASHINGTON — President Obama will travel to Estonia during the first week of September to reassure Baltic allies that they have the support of the United States, the White House said, as tensions rise over Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

Mr. Obama is adding the stop in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, to his previously scheduled trip to Wales for a NATO summit, where the crisis in Ukraine is expected to be one of the main topics of discussion.

The White House said the stop will include meetings with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Latvian President Andris Berzins and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

“In light of recent developments in Ukraine, the United States has taken steps to reassure allies in Central and Eastern Europe, and this trip is a chance to reaffirm our ironclad commitment to Article V as the foundation of NATO,” Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement.

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