KALININGRAD. Nov 22 (Interfax-Northwest) - Russia's interests, including military ones, in the Baltic region should not be infringed upon "in the slightest" in light of NATO's enlargement, Kaliningrad region Governor Vladimir Yegorov has said.
"Otherwise, the Kaliningrad region, which Russia is trying to transform into a region of cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe, could become an island of tension," the governor told Interfax on Friday.
Yegorov, former commander of the Russian Baltic Fleet, noted that "after Lithuania joins NATO, Russian troops in the Kaliningrad region will in fact find themselves in an enclave surrounded by the alliance, which will require an especially through political, diplomatic, and military expertise."
The states of the continent have an experience of confrontation, but there is no point to return to it, Yegorov said.
In this connection, he said he is confident that the new aspirants for NATO membership from the Baltic region had no pressing necessity to join it.
The situation in the Baltic region has been rather calm and balanced for a long time, and relations between the countries are being built on a cooperative and constructive basis, the governor said. "Therefore, the Baltic states did not have an urgent need to join NATO," he noted.
In addition, the accession of the Baltic states to the alliance will not add trust in relations between them and Russia, Yegorov said. "However, a significant increase of tensions should not be expected, either," he said.
"Poland, a southern neighbor of the Kaliningrad region, has been a NATO member for several years. This has not affected our economic or political relations. The servicemen from Poland's Pomorski military district and those from the Russian Baltic Fleet units deployed in our region have also found a common language," he said.
There are more than enough ways for cooperation between the Russian and NATO military, Yegorov said. "Talks on setting up a system of interaction between Navy command posts of the Baltic Sea countries, which implies the exchange of information on the activity of air forces and warships, including submarines, have been held for a long time. The aim of such a system is to avert dangerous situations in the air and sea and rule out an atmosphere of mutual mistrust," Yegorov said.
The governor especially pointed to another aspect of interaction, efforts against international terrorism. "If the current NATO candidates concentrate their efforts on such projects, then we will surely find grounds for mutual understanding and work," he said.