Whereas one of the Baltic American Freedom League’s main goals is to help assure the continued security of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from outside aggression;
Whereas the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a regional defense alliance and its member countries are “determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded upon principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law”;
Whereas France is a NATO member country and is obligated to abide by the conditions set forth in the North Atlantic Treaty;
Whereas Russia is not a NATO member country, and is in fact, the successor state to the Soviet Union, and its government is not promoting the principles of democracy and individual liberty within and without its borders, has occupied territories of neighboring Georgia, and has indicated that Russia would use such ships “wherever they would be needed”;
Whereas France is proposing to sell to Russia a completed Mistral military warship and license the building of additional such warships;
Whereas the Mistral is defined as a amphibious assault, command and power projection warship;
Whereas the purchase of the French Mistral warship by Russia and the building of additional Mistral warships by Russia will not add to the stability of democratic and freedom loving nations of the North Atlantic, Baltic, or Black Sea Regions, but will rather introduce a new potent assault weapons system in the region, add to the instability and insecurity of NATO member countries, and impair the efforts of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to build confidence and trust among member nations so that such conflict may be resolved by peaceful means and not by force of arms;
BE IT RESOLVED by the Baltic American Freedom League at its Annual Membership Meeting on February 6, 2010, assembled, to oppose the sale and licensing of French Mistral warships to Russia and furthermore, calls upon the United States of America, NATO, and the OSCE to take actions necessary to discourage France from selling Russia the Mistral warship and the licensing of the building of additional Mistral warships of French design.
