Notes / Ares
12 November 2019
Armament and Transatlantic Relationships: The Baltic States Perspective
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Margarita Šešelgytė
Director, Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University
This paper analyses the position of Baltic states on new European defence initiatives such as the EDF or PeSCo through the prism of their defence relations with the US. It argues that due to the unstable security environment and still prevailing military imbalance in the region which favours Russia over NATO, the transatlantic link is paramount for security in the Baltics. The growing disagreements between the partners on both sides of the Atlantic might place the Baltic states between a rock and a hard place, dissuading them from engaging further in European defence…