Northern Foreign Ministers Hope Russia Will Be Flexible about Problem of Kaliningrad

The Foreign Ministers of the Northern European Countries hope Russia will be flexible as concerns the problem of the transit of the country's citizens from and to the Kaliningrad Region after Lithuania and Poland join the European Union. According to what Jan Petersen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, said while speaking at the jubilee session of the Northern Council, 'the matter requires flexible decisions in line with the Schengen Treaty'.

He also expressed his hope that Russia may agree to take back people who may cross illegally into other countries via the Kaliningrad Region. Mr. Petersen pointed out that a number of new foreign consulates were needed in the Kaliningrad Region.

Mr. Petersen also said that whatever decisions are made concerning the Kaliningrad Region, they must not threaten the expansion of the European Union or the sovereignty of its new members. In the meantime, the minister agreed that the residents of the Kaliningrad region were entitled to being able to commute freely between their home region and the rest of Russia.