A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN DENMARK AND LITHUANIA
A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN DENMARK AND LITHUANIA
I. Introduction
History was written when the Danish ambassador to the Baltic Republics Mr. Otto Borch arrived in Riga on August 26, 1991. The same evening the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Mr. Meri, Mr. Jurkans and Mr. Saudargas arrived in Copenhagen from the Icelandic capital Reykiavik, where they had signed an agreement with the Icelandic Government on the establishment of diplomatic relations. At midnight a similar agreement was signed in Copenhagen with the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Uffe Ellemann Jensen. After having established a Danish embassy in Riga - temporarily located in a hotel - Mr. Otto Borch paid visits to the Estonian and Lithuanian capitals Tallinn and Vilnius. Exactly 51 years had passed since a Danish diplomat had stepped on Baltic ground.
II. The establishment of diplomatic relations between Denmark and Lithuania
The Danish recognition de jure of the Baltic Republics dates back to the year 1921. The same year the three countries joined the League of Nations. The first major international treaty between Denmark and Lithuania was a treaty of July 18, 1923 on trade- and maritime relations, which was entered into on the basis of an exchange of notes between the foreign ministers of Denmark and Lithuania Mr. Cold and Mr. Galvanauskas. The same year a Danish legation was established in the Kaunas - at that time capital of Lithuania. In the following years trade relations between Denmark and Lithuania were first and foremost developed in the field of agriculture. According to statistics in the archives of the former Danish legation in Kaunas, now preserved in the State Archive in Copenhagen, the major part of the Lithuanian export to Denmark consisted of horses and timber. Lithuania imported primarily cars, agricultural machines and textiles from Denmark during that period. With the purpose of further development of trade relations between our countries, Mr. V. Miasulis was appointed Danish consule of honour in Siauliai. Mr. Miasulis was a partner in the biggest firm of agricultural machines in Lithuania at that time "V. Miasulis ir J. Baltrusaitis". Mr. Miasulis remained Danish consule until the close down of the consulate in 1936.
III. The 1940 termination of the diplomatic relations
In September and October 1939 the front pages of most Danish newspapers followed with interest and concern the increasing Soviet demands to the Baltic republics and Finland. Whereas diplomatic support was given by the Danish Government to Finland - after the Finnish Government had received an "invitation" from the Soviet Government to hold negotiations in Moscow on "current political questions" - no similar diplomatic support was given to the Baltic Republics. The final Soviet annexation of the Baltic Republics seems politically to have been tacitly accepted by the Danish Government as a fait accompli.
During the period between the World Wars Denmark pursued a policy of neutrality. This position was confirmed in a declaration sent out immediately after the beginning of World War II in 1939. Traditionally Denmark had close business relations with Great Britain and Germany. A non aggression pact was signed with Nazi Germany on May 31, 1939. But also as regards Eastern Europe, Denmark seeked a cooperation on a neutral basis with the USSR.
A Danish government delegation was sent to Moscow in the summer of 1940 to hold negotiations on the development of trade relations between Denmark and the USSR. It should be noted that the head of the Danish delegation Mr. Henning Hasle was invited by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to attended the ceremony during which Mr. Josef Stalin received the respective documents on the adhersion to the USSR of the newly created Soviet Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Governments. In his memoires "Skyggen fra Syd" ("The Shadow from the South") Mr. Hasle describes the ceremony as obviously farcial.
The official relations between Denmark and Lithuania were heading towards their temporary end. On August 8, 1940 the Soviet Lithuanian Government closed all its official representations in Denmark and the Danish legation in Kaunas was officially informed that the Soviet Government expected its full liquidation within two weeks. On August 28, 1940 the staff of the Danish legation as well as most remaining Danes in Lithuania left the country.
Before the departure the Danish charge d'affaires in Kaunas Mr. Carl Gustav Worsaae paid an official visit of resignation to the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in liquidation and to its secretary general Mr. P. Glovackas.
IV. The post war period
International politics con be forced to accept the realities of the structure of power in the World Society. From a legal point of view, however, it is a fundamental principle of international law that treaties violating rights of third countries - e.g. the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact on the division of Eastern Europe - are not legally valid. Just as fundamental is the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs. Consequently, convincing arguments supporting the conformity with international law of the Soviet annexation of the Baltic Republics seem hard to find. This seems to some extent to have influenced on the Danish attitude towards the USSR in the Post War Period. No explicit political recognition of the Soviet annexation of the Baltic Republics has ever been given by any Danish Government. This is also the official explanation that it was never attempted in the Post War Time to establish Danish consulates in the Baltic Soviet Republics. Such a step would have been a de facto political recognition of the Soviet annexation.
V. The 1990 Lithuanian Declaration of Independence - Danish reactions
The first Danish government reaction on the Lithuanian declaration of independence of March 11, 1990 was a confirmation of the Danish de jure recognition of 1921 as well as a political confirmation of the non recognition of the Soviet annexation of 1940. >From a Lithuanian point of view such a status quo of course could only seem unsatisfactory cf. Mr. Vytautas Landsbergis in his adress to members of the British Parliament and the House of Lords of November 14, 1990 (Published in vol. 1/91 p. 21-22 of "The Economist of Lithuania").
In a statement adopted by the Danish Parliament on April 18, 1990 the hope was expressed that the Soviet Union and Lithuania by means of free negotiations should transfer the formal Lithuanian Declaration of Independence into reality. At that time it was still out of the question to re-establish the suspended diplomatic relations. As the Lithuanian boundaries were controlled by Moscow, there would be no possibility of Danish diplomates obtaining visas for the Baltic Soviet Republics, as the legal competence as regards foreign affairs was placed in Moscow, according to the Constitution of the USSR.
VI. The period following the August Coup in Moscow
Shortly after the failure of the attempted coup in Moscow of August 19, 1991 the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ellemann-Jensen in an adress of August 23, 1991 to his colleagues in the 11 other countries of the European Community called upon their recognition of the independence of the Baltic Republics. It was hoped in Copenhagen that it would be possible within the autumn to establish embassies in the Baltic states. However World history developed from minute to minute during those days. It took only a day and a night until the message was given to the Baltic Governments by the Danish Foreign Minister that a Danish ambassador had been appointed to leave for Riga.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had gained control of their own boundaries again. The requirement for a recognition under international law as independent states was now met. Consequently, after 51 years of suspension, the diplomatic relations between our countries could be re-established.
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