The Baltic states, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia accede — Key Events — NATO Eastern Flank

What happened

Seven states invited at the 2002 Prague Summit join the Alliance, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — the first former Soviet republics to do so — together with Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. NATO's tenth enlargement wave takes the Alliance to 26 members.

Everything this module describes north of Poland and south of Hungary begins here. Six of the nine states that host a multinational battlegroup today joined in this wave, and the Baltic Air Policing mission began with it, because the three Baltic states had no fighter force of their own to police their airspace with.

Confidence: High

When29 March 2004

KindPolitical · Diplomatic · Territorial change

ArenaBaltic states and Baltic Sea

Confidence: High Sources: NATO official texts and summit declarations ↗ Methodology Corrections

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Connected records

1 record that this event names, or that name it — every one an explicit reference in a published record, nothing inferred from subject matter.

Part of1

Campaigns whose record places this event inside them.

Baltic Air Policing

Where this fits

This is one entry in the NATO Eastern Flank timeline. The full Key Events surface carries every dated turning point with its filters and its essential subset, and this event in place shows what came before and after it. How Vigil grades, dates and sources its claims is set out in the methodology.