Latvia has finalized all requirements for joining the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, meaning Latvian citizens may be just a few months away from being able to enter the United States with little more than a passport.

The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Sept. 18 that Latvian and U.S. officials have finalized language in an agreement on combatting serious crime. The agreement is the last step in the consultative process that should lead to Latvia being admitted into the visa waiver program.

“We have completed all our homework,” Pēteris Podvinskis, first secretary in the Latvian Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Latvians Online.

Latvian Ambassador Andrejs Pildegovičs, U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Stewart Baker and Dept. of Justice representative Kenneth P. Mortenson initialed the agreement on Sept. 18. The agreement focuses on serious crime, especially terrorism, and calls on both sides to exchange information about criminals.

The agreement still needs to be signed by both sides, Podvinskis said. It is expected that Latvia’s Cabinet of Ministers will review the agreement on Sept. 23, after which a date will be set for the signing.

Latvia is the first of a number of candidate countries from Eastern Europe to complete the consultative process, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

The only remaining hurdle might be the current rate of visa refusal for Latvians seeking to travel to the United States. Under the Visa Waiver Program, a candidate country must have a refusal rate of no more than 10 percent. The last time the U.S. State Department reported data in 2007, Latvia’s refusal rate stood at 11.8 percent. New numbers are scheduled for release in October, and Podvinksis said Latvian officials are confident Latvia’s rate will be below 10 percent.

Latvian officials have worked for several years on earning the visa waiver. Currently just 27 countries, most of them in Western Europe, are part of the Visa Waiver Program.

Canada lifted its visa requirements for Latvian citizens last October.

The U.S. Senate has unanimously agreed to a resolution honoring Latvia on the 90th anniversary of its declaration of independence and calling on the president to ask Russia to acknowledge that the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states was illegal.

The resolution, introduced June 9 by Republican Sen. Gordon H. Smith of Oregon and Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, was discharged by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Sept. 16 and adopted the same day by the full Senate. The committee’s action came a day before it was scheduled to hear testimony about Russia’s aggression against Georgia.

The resolution specifically calls on the U.S. president and the secretary of state “to urge the government of the Russian Federation to acknowledge that the Soviet occupation of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and for the succeeding 51 years was illegal.”

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed in August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, included a secret protocol that allowed the Soviet Union to extend its sphere of influence over the Baltic states.

The resolution also “commends the government of Latvia for its success in implementing political and economic reforms, for establishing political, religious and economic freedom, and for its strong commitment to human and civil rights.”

A similar resolution introduced July 31 in the House of Representatives does not ask the president or the secretary of state to seek Russian anknowledgement of the illegality of the Soviet Occupation. That resolution, H. Res. 1405, remains under review by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Latvia’s Edgars Bergs earned himself an early birthday present Sept. 14, winning a silver medal in the shot put during the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

Bergs, who turned 24 on Sept. 15, placed second in the F35/36 classification, which is for diplegic athletes. The best throw for the Saldus, Latvia, resident was his last, traveling 15.54 meters and earning 1,075 points, according to the official Web site of the Beijing Paralympic Games.

Wei Guo of China set a world record in the F35 class with a distance of 16.22 meters, earning 1,122 points and the gold medal. The bronze went to Pawel Piotrowski of Poland, who set a world record in the F36 class.

The competition took place in National Stadium in the Chinese capital.

Bergs’ medal is the third for Latvian athletes in the Beijing Paralympic Games. Aigars Apinis won a gold in the discus throw on Sept. 8 and took silver in his class in the shot put on Sept. 12.

Apinis and Bergs also were medal winners in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.

The Beijing Paralympic Games continue through Sept. 17.