RUSSIA-LATVIA BORDER TREATY.

The European Union and NATO welcomed on 27 March the signing earlier that day of a long-awaited border treaty between Latvia and Russia. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso congratulated both countries in a statement, in which he hailed the "decisive step toward the development of stable relations between both countries". NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called the signing an "important step" and said he was looking forward to the treaty's early ratification. Finalised border treaties with Latvia and Estonia are among the preconditions Russia needs to meet to achieve its long-term goal of a visa-free travel arrangement with the EU. Estonia's border with Russia is still caught in a legal vacuum stemming from a Soviet annexation of territory defined in a 1920 peace treaty. Estonia and Russia signed a treaty covering the border in 2005, but Russia withdrew its signature after the Estonian parliament appended a preamble referring to the treaty of 1920. (JBO)