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Latvia's tiny air force has little chance of shooting down a hostile plane. But, thanks to its new radar, it may enjoy a grandstand look at intruders as they fly over, a view that Nato, too, could be enjoying soon.
A flick of a switch would plug the Balts' network into Nato's, just as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia will, they hope, later this year bind themselves fast to the West - this time for good.For the Balts this is a turning point in their history. Swallowed up by Stalin with Hitler's connivance, but now independent once more, the Baltic states have proved quick learners and even star pupils of the new, post-communist Europe.
The Baltic states
But this also marks the most significant milestone in Nato's shift from a Cold War-era fighting force and, as the candidate countries heard yesterday, many of them have much work to do to prove their fitness.A summit of the would-be Nato members opened yesterday in Riga, Latvia's capital, with the Balts frontrunners in the race to join the alliance in its next round of enlargement, to be announced in November.
Senator Trent Lott, the Republican leader in America's upper chamber, offered the new countries optimistic words and a warning. Underlining Nato's change of emphasis since the days of the Cold War, Mr Lott said the September 11 attacks emphasised Washington's need for allies big and small in the fight against terrorism.But he also told the 10 candidate countries - most of which have armed forces far below Nato standards - that membership of the alliance would not remove from them the need to tackle problems such as corruption, anti-Semitism and suppression of the press that persisted in the former communist countries. "For the promise to be fulfilled, the ancient maladies must be eliminated," he said.
On a military level, the Baltic states are making serious efforts to improve their fitness for membership. Recognising the hopelessness of investing in Cold War-era heavy mechanised units for a war they are unlikely to fight, the three have instead looked for gaps in the military market which need to be filled. Latvia - with just 5,000 full time armed forces personnel - specialises in mine clearance and field medicine.It may have no combat aircraft or ground-to-air missiles and only 18 anti-aircraft guns. But the screens at the new surveillance centre next to Riga airport display a glowing panorama of the region's airspace. One day that will extend Nato's view of the skies over Russia and the Baltic Sea.
For now, Latvia's most effective way to defend its airspace is what Capt Andrejs Dudarevs, commander of air surveillance, describes as "diplomatic work", in other words loud protests at any intrusions."Our airspace is very small," said Janis Sarts, a defence ministry official. "By the time an interceptor scrambles to meet an intruder, the intruder has left our territory anyway." Maintaining a fighter fleet would not be cost-effective, he said. But buying air defence missiles is part of Latvia's plan to upgrade its forces, a programme given the stamp of approval by Nato generals.
The vision of waves of enemy aircraft attacking Latvia may seem far-fetched. But, as befits a country that bid farewell to its last unwanted foreign troops, the Russians, less than a decade ago, defence is taken very seriously.Unlike the founding members of Nato, national survival was the key issue for the Baltic states though much of the late 20th century.
Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the Latvian president, regularly greets visitors dressed in maroon and white, the colours of the Latvian flag, with earrings to match.
Magnificent crowns of oak leaves sat in the corner of some ministry offices this week, relics of celebrations to mark the summer solstice and reminders of Latvia's pagan past and its thick forests. According to Mrs Vike-Freiberga, speaking in her study in Riga castle, the occupation of the Russians in Latvia was "in the late 1980s close to achieving its goal of wiping Latvia off the map of Europe".
"Joining Nato or the European Union seemed like a dream we could never conceivably realise in our lifetime," recalled Edvins Inkens, now a member of parliament, of the struggle for independence from Moscow, finally secured in 1991. "The maximum we hoped for back then was the withdrawal of Russian troops."But the real significance of the journey back into the European fold - the Baltic states are also likely to win EU membership in 2004 - lies in the chance it provides of reconciling the country with its past, most sensitively in the shape of the Russians who make up one third of the population.
"For Latvians, it means they don't have to worry any more," said Pauls Raudseps, an editor at the Diena newspaper. "For Russians, it says that this country will not grow closer to Russia again. And it gives them a tangible stimulus to take up Latvian citizenship." Spotting the sinister hand of Moscow at work in Latvia is no longer the passion it was. But Russia is still looking for leverage on the Baltic littoral and seems ready to use some imaginative methods to do so.Football fans who risked missing the World Cup because Latvia could not afford the broadcasting fees were given a reprieve by a political party, seen as sympathetic to Russia, which somehow secured a deal to show the competition.
Up to half a million residents, most of them Russians, are not Latvian citizens and many prefer the status quo. Among them is Alexei Semryakov, a 63-year-old Russian walking with his grandson amidst the tower blocks of the Riga suburb of Zolitude. "We will all have the same citizenship when we get to the cemetery," he said.
25 June 2002: Putin lets Nato 'recruit' in Baltic
15 June 2002: New EU countries facing 'second division' status
28 May 2002: Old enemies toast new Nato office in Moscow� Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.
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