Obama to visit Estonia to reassure Baltic allies

Washington: President Barack Obama will travel to Estonia in September amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, the White House said on Friday.

Obama will meet two other Baltic presidents -Latvia’s Andris Berzins and Lithuania’s Dalia Grybauskaite -to discuss cooperation on regional security, economic growth and collective defence, Hayden said.

This trip is a chance to reaffirm our ironclad commitment to Article V as the foundation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said Hayden, adding that the United States has taken steps to reassure allies in Central and Eastern Europe in light of recent developments in Ukraine.

After visiting Estonia, Obama will proceed to Britain to attend a NATO summit, Hayden added. Ukraine has intensified its offensive against the rebels since mid-July after the July 17 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in insurgent-controlled Donetsk region, which killed all 298 people on board.

Ukraine plunged into chaos in late February after the ouster of the previous pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. Pro-Russian regions in Ukraine, mainly in the east, protested against the interim government, which is pro-West.

The Black Sea Crimean peninsula had broken away from Ukraine and joined Russia, leading to tension between the two countries in following months.