One of the main reasons is that the Baltic states, although they are small, are important. They're on the front lines, in a sense. And in many ways, what goes on here, both internally and in the neighborhood, can be seen as a litmus test of whether the Europe of the future is going to be like the Europe of the past or something better and different that we're trying to shape for the first time. So the history and geography of the Baltic states give them an importance beyond their size. Secondly, in terms of American foreign policy, the Baltic states are not just a foreign policy issue, they are a domestic policy issue.
Most foreign policies have a domestic root in interests or groups.
There is some reason why a country cares and how much it cares about what goes on abroad. Usually the reason is related to something at home. In the case of the Baltic states, there are very important communities of American citizens who came from or whose parents or grandparents came from the Baltic states. Throughout the period of Soviet rule in the Baltic states, these communities remained active within the United States, always keeping alive the concept, the hope, the inspiration that one day the Baltic states would be free and independent again. Now by a miracle of history the Baltic states are free and independent again, and those constituencies have, through their efforts, given American foreign policy a sense of special success.