In the current year NATO is planning to organise a series of military training exercises in the Baltic States aimed at getting ready for the arrival of the NATO officers and operations they are due to carry out, reported BNS agency on the 1^st of March. In summer joint military trainings with the USA will be held in the Northern part of Estonia. According to the preliminary plan, approximately 500 American marine infantry will land on the Estonian seashore for joining the Estonian military forces and forming a single battalion, headed by the Estonian officer.

Joint military training with the USA will be held in Latvia, where military officers from the Baltic States will improve their skills together with the Americans. According to the data of the Estonian publication Postimees, military training exercises in 2010 will take place in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, where military staff will be trained to receive NATO forces arriving to the region. In Latvia the training will be concentrated on the reloading of the NATO transport vessel.

According to the data of the Estonian Defence Ministry, it is planned that the number and the scope of similar trainings will increase in the future. Before 2009 large-scale NATO trainings did not take place in the Baltic States.

Material has been prepared by the Centre of Geopolitical Studies with reference to the article from «ИА Regnum» of 01 03 2010

For effective complex defence of Latvia, the establishment of a permanent division of the National Armed Forces has started in Latgale, reported the official website of the Ministry of Defence.

On 13 January a concert "Together to the victory" was held in Lithuania, where the audience decided to support Ukraine's defence and donated 110 thousand Euros.

Alexander Lukashenko on 9 January signed a decree № 8 "On the establishment of visa-free entry and exit of foreign nationals." The document establishes visa-free entry to Belarus for a period not exceeding 5 days at the entrance through the checkpoint "National Airport Minsk" for citizens of 80 countries, - reported the press service of the President of Belarus.