Baltic presidents to visit Trump on April 3

US President Donald Trump will welcome his counterparts from the Baltic states in Washington on April 3 to discuss security and economic ties, the Estonian presidency said Thursday.

The presidents of fellow NATO members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- Kersti Kaljulaid, Raimonds Vejonis and Dalia Grybauskaite -- last met with Trump in Warsaw last year.

"Our security cooperation is very good, and all four countries are contributing at least two percent of GDP to national defence in 2018," Estonian presidential advisor Lauri Kuusing said, according to Baltic news agency BNS.

The Baltic trio are among only eight NATO allies expected this year to meet the defence spending benchmark repeatedly insisted upon by Trump.

Grybauskaite's top foreign policy advisor said the Baltic leaders will discuss preparations for the Western defence alliance's next summit on July 11-12, where Lithuania expects decisions to strengthen air defence capabilities.

"It will be a good chance to discuss the NATO summit in Brussels and present our point of view," advisor Nerijus Aleksiejunas told AFP.

The three countries on NATO's eastern flank have been spooked by their Soviet-era master Russia's actions since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Thursday that the Baltic meeting with Trump is "proof of our strategic partnership".

All three Baltic foreign ministers will visit the US on March 5 to meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Rinkevics told reporters after a meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan in Riga.

The US visit can be seen as a sign of how the Baltic states are now firmly anchored in the West, 100 years after declaring independence.

"This meeting on the 100th anniversary of our independence once again reaffirms the special bond and good cooperation between the Baltic countries and the United States," Kuusing said.

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