Lithuania, Russia For Purer Baltic Sea
Vilnius, ITAR-TASS, June 28, 2005
By Vladas Burbulis

Lithuania and Russia expand cooperation in protecting the ecology of the Baltic Sea, says the protocol of the meeting of the Joint Lithuanian-Russian commission for cooperation in environmental protection that ended in Vilnius on Tuesday.

The sides agreed to begin as of July 1 the joint monitoring of the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Bay and determined the localities of potential polluters, said Valentin Stepankov, the deputy minister of natural resources, the co-chairman of the commission.

Stepankov also reported that Vilnius satisfied Moscow's request to admit Russians experts to Klaipeda port and Butinga oil terminal to find out whether or not these facilities are potential polluters.

The next meeting of the Joint commission will be held in Moscow in November 2005.