MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - The Russian Defense Ministry has drafted a government resolution to update the list of points for measuring the width of the territorial sea off the Russian mainland and islands in the Baltic Sea.
The corresponding document was published on the federal website of draft laws and regulations.
The ministry proposes declaring null and void in Russia the Baltic Sea section of the list of geographic coordinates of the baselines for measuring the width of the Soviet territorial waters, economic zone and continental shelf off the mainland and islands of the Arctic Ocean and the Baltic and Black Seas dated 1985.
"The Russian Defense Ministry shall publish in the Notices to Mariners the list specified in paragraph 1 of this resolution and adjust and augment state maritime navigation charts of appropriate scales with the marked boundaries of the Russian territorial sea," the draft says.
According to the draft, the Russian Foreign Ministry will present to the UN secretary-general a copy of each map adjusted and printed in accordance with the resolution for safekeeping.
"The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography shall bear in mind the adjusted external border of the Russian territorial sea in the Baltic Sea while designing and updating state topographic maps," the draft said.
A description of another draft authored by the Defense Ministry and published on the website said that approving the drafts would help develop a system of straight baselines along the southern part of the Russian islands in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, as well as in the area of Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk, allowing the corresponding areas of water to be used as internal waters of the Russian Federation. The state sea border will also be adjusted accordingly to the external border of the territorial sea.
The ministry explained why the current list needs an adjustment, stating that "it does not take into account the practice of establishing direct baselines of other states, and the geographic coordinates of the points based on small-scale nautical charts dating back to the mid-20th century do not fully correspond to the modern geographical situation."