TALLINN, Sep 12, BNS - Foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania underlined in a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Riga today that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and collective defense remain key principles of NATO cooperation, the Foreign Ministry here said.
The Estonian minister, Urmas Paet, said after the meeting that more attention needs to be paid to the needs of collective defense in the framework of development of existing capabilities and transformation of the alliance.
"Member states of NATO are confident that Article 5 works," he added. "In this context NATO's visibility in Estonia has importance. Today we see it in the form of the airspace guarding operation. There should be more such elements in the future."
Paet, his Latvian colleague Maris Riekstins and Petras Vaitiekunas of Lithuania spoke with the NATO chief about the situation in Georgia and NATO-Russia relations.
The ministers also dealt with questions of collective defense and defense planning necessary for it in connection with the Sept. 18-19 informal meeting of NATO defense ministers, a meeting of foreign ministers in December and the summit scheduled for next spring.
The Riga meeting took place in the framework of the NATO chief's visit to Latvia to observe the international mine clearance operation Open Spirit 2008.
Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8861, sise@bns.ee
