[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 130 (Thursday, July 23, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S4433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WELLES DECLARATION ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, on this very day in 1940, Acting 
Secretary of State Sumner Welles issued a statement outlining U.S. 
policy toward the Soviet Union's annexation of the Baltic States. It 
began: ``During these past few days the devious processes whereunder 
the political independence and territorial integrity of the three small 
Baltic Republics--Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania--were to be 
deliberately annihilated by one of their more powerful neighbors, have 
been rapidly drawing to their conclusion.''
  It expressed the sympathy of the people of the United States for 
democratic self-government and, at the same time, articulated the 
policy of the United States to oppose predatory activities using force 
or the threat of force or any intervention in the affairs of another 
sovereign state. The United States continued to recognize the 
sovereignty of the Baltic States throughout about 50 years of Soviet 
occupation.
  Things that go around come around. Now we have a historical footnote. 
Vladimir Putin has been trying to rewrite this history for his own 
devious purposes--reverting to the absurd Soviet claim that the Baltics 
in 1940 joined the Soviet Union voluntarily.
  There are also clear parallels we ought to take notice of to this 
current Russian occupation of parts of the Republic of Georgia and the 
Ukraine. The principles in Secretary of State Welles' Declaration are 
as relevant today as they were 80 years ago.

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