3 Baltic States Approved as U.N. Members

The Security Council on Thursday recommended U.N. membership for Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, which recently secured their independence from the Soviet Union after 51 years.

The council, whose 15 members include the Soviet Union, acted without a vote.

The three Baltic states will be formally admitted to the world body by the U.N. General Assembly at the start of its annual session Tuesday.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, part of the czarist empire before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, were independent states between the two world wars. They were members of the League of Nations, predecessor to the United Nations, until their annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940.

The takeover, which many Western countries refused to recognize, stemmed from a 1939 pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that carved up much of Eastern Europe.

The Soviet Union granted the Baltic states independence last Friday after dozens of Western countries accorded them diplomatic recognition.

Soviet U.N. representative Yuli M. Vorontsov gave the thumbs-up sign of approval when asked by reporters what he thought of the Security Council action and said he was glad events had proceeded in a “dignified way.”

The council meeting, which lasted only a few minutes, was witnessed by representatives of the three Baltic countries--Ernst Jaakson of Estonia, Anatol Dinbergs of Latvia and Stasys Lozoraitis of Lithuania.

All three head diplomatic missions that have functioned for decades in the United States.

The Baltic states will join the United Nations together with four other countries whose applications were endorsed by the Security Council last month.

They are North and South Korea and two Pacific island nations formerly administered by the United States as U.N. trust territories--the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

The entry of seven new members will raise the membership of the world organization from 159 to 166.

NEXT STEP

To join the United Nations, a country must be approved by the Security Council and receive the votes of two-thirds of the General Assembly members. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania took the first step Thursday, when the Security Council offered its backing after dispensing with the usual 30-day waiting period for U.N. admission. The three countries are to become full-fledged U.N. members on Tuesday or Wednesday, when the General Assembly convenes.