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2.
Mr Maude asked Mr Schori for his view of developments in
the Soviet Union. Mr Schori thought that these were also
irreversible. The Baltic States would become independent
sooner or later. Gorbachev had said so. But time was
needed. The Baltic States were pushing hard to reinstate pre-war institutions, such as the Baltic Assembly which had been set up to facilitate co-operation between the Baltic
States. President Landsbergis of Lithuania was hoping that
links could be established with Boris Yeltsin's Russia.
Lithuania had sought observer status at the CSCE meeting in
Copenhagen but had been rebuffed. President Havel of
Czechoslovakia seemed eager to develop links with Lithuania, a joint expert commission was to be established with offices in Prague and Vilnius; the Czechoslovakian Ambassador in
Moscow was to go to Vilnius. Although Czechoslovakia did
not want to create problems for Gorbachev, Havel was pushing hard. As for Sweden, even before Lithuania's declaration of independence, the Swedish Government had written to Prime
Minister Ryzhkov asking that the Baltic States be invited to
the Baltic Environment Conference in Stockholm in
September.
3.
Mr Maude commented that most people had some idea of how
things would shape up over the longer term, say in five
years. But there were uncertainties about the route to
take.
The Baltic Republics must not overplay their hand. They were moving in the right direction but they could not achieve their goals immediately. Mr Schori said that it was important to avoid the Messianic approach. Mr Maude agreed.
We had seen the Messianic approach succeed in
Czechoslovakia, but that was with the blessing of the Soviet
Union. It was different in the Baltic States.
Mrs Prunskiene appeared to be pragmatic but President
Landsbergis did not seem to recognise obstacles. Mr Schori
commented that things seemed to be working better in Estonia
and Latvia. Bilateral links between those states and Sweden
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