On 23 August, the Foreign Minister of Germany Guido Westerwelle, the Foreign Minister of Estonia Urmas Paet and the Foreign Minister of Lithuania Audronius Ažubalis will arrive in Riga to take part in the regular political consultations between the Baltic States and Germany, the so-called 3+1 consultations. The Latvian Open-Air Ethnographic Museum has been chosen as the venue for the event, mfa.gov.lv reports.
During the meeting the ministers will devote special attention to the current developments in the European Union, in particular, to financial and economic situation. Other topical international issues will also be discussed. As part of the official programme, the ministers will lay flowers at the Freedom Monument to mark the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The ministerial meeting will be followed by a press conference. At the conclusion, the ministers will be offered a tour through the Open-Air Ethnographic Museum and a concert in the Usma Church.
First consultations among the Foreign Ministers of the Baltic states and Germany took place on 28 August 1996 in Leipzig, Germany, on the initiative of the then Foreign Minister, Klaus Kinkel. The event is held each year in a different country. Germany hosted the consultations last year.
Following the 3+1 consultations, the German Foreign Minister Westerwelle will meet with the Prime Minister of Latvia Valdis Dombrovskis and Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs as part of a bilateral visit, in order to discuss the current matters of Latvian-German bilateral cooperation.
Forget germany
Whatever the commiserating made over the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact one can be certain that the reason for it, from a German standpoint, was to avoid a war on two fronts.
The belligerency of Britain and France left the German High Command in no doubt that their backdoor was wide open in the event of a repeat of the 1914 – 1918 Western Front. It had to be closed to avoid an expansionist Soviet Union.
It was a bargaining chip that allowed Nazi Germany to shift their attention to the threat to their West from the Western Powers. In 1939 Germany would have been aware that Poland’s military capability was formidable; I seem to recall that its armed forces were bigger than those of the British Empire.
Unlikely to be mentioned at the Press Conference will be the Lord Curzon (Britain) initiative. As early as 1919 this proposed a pact with the emerging Soviet Union that was very similar to the Molotov –Ribbentrop Pact. There was no British strategic purpose in that as far as I can perceive.
Off the table too will be the Western Powers’ Yalta agreements, which without the merit of being excused as a strategic necessity, as in 1939, agreed with and signed agreement with Stalin’s monstrous regime. This in effect conceded acceptance, not only the terms of the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact but the surrender of the rest of Eastern Europe’s unfortunate nations. The biggest lies of all are the half-lies or the ones never uttered.