Lithuanian border guards planned to unveil a new helicopter which will escort trains under the Kaliningrad Special Transit Scheme, thus ensuring a rapid response to any potential incidents.
“The helicopter will help to strengthen surveillance of trains travelling to and from Kaliningrad,” Lithuanian Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic said in a news release.
The minister added that the region’s changing security situation in recent years has created new threats and challenges.
“Border officers remain alert and are firmly guarding our country’s borders,” the minister says. “One current priority is to ensure that the Border Service and its personnel are fully equipped with the resources that they need.”
The acting director for migration and home affairs at the European Commission, Beta Gminder, is scheduled to attend the presentation of the helicopter at the State Border Guard Service’s base in Apluknys in the Trakai District.
Gminder is also due to meet with Kondrantovic in Vilnius to discuss further co-operation so as to strength the protection of the EU’s external borders and its eastern flank.
“I am confident that our collaboration, as based on our mutual understanding and shared responsibility, will continue,” the interior minister told BNS.
“We are currently focused on two priorities – improving the management of our national and EU borders and implementing the Migration and Asylum Pact,” Kondratovic said in a statement.
The European Commission has allocated EUR 25 million to ensure the security of the Special Transit Scheme.
Source: BNS
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