U.S. Encourages Russia To Clarify Intentions After Reported Proposal To Revise Its Maritime Border

The United States on Wednesday reacted warily to reports that Russia could revise the borders of its territorial waters in the region, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

In a draft proposal reported by some Kremlin-backed media, Russia's Defense Ministry appeared to suggest updating the coordinates used to measure the strip of territorial waters off its mainland coast and that of its islands in the Baltic Sea.

The since-deleted draft decree authored by the Defense Ministry appeared on the government’s legal portal on Tuesday, and argued that the existing maritime border needed revising because it was established in 1985 on the basis of nautical charts now out of use.

"We saw the reports and are watching the situation closely," a State Department spokesperson told TURAN's Washington correspondent Wednesday afternoon.

"We encourage Russia to clarify its intentions and ensure they are in line with international law and existing agreements," a State Department spokesperson added.

It wasn’t immediately clear from the Russian draft whether the proposed changes would shift the border or merely clarify it.

The plan also riled Moscow's neighbors: “Russia’s actions are seen as a deliberate, targeted, escalatory provocation to intimidate neighboring countries and their societies,” Lithuania’s foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday morning.

“This is further proof that Russia’s aggressive and revisionist policy is a threat to the security of neighbouring countries and Europe as a whole,” the statement reads.