On Friday, Lithuania’s authorities announced that the Baltic state together with five other NATO members neighboring Russia had agreed to create a "drone wall" aimed at safeguarding their borders from "provocation," according to officials.
Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite announced the plan to use unmanned aerial vehicles for protection after talks with her counterparts from fellow Baltic states Estonia and Latvia, as well as Finland, Norway, and Poland.
"This is a completely new thing, a drone wall stretching from Norway to Poland, and the goal is to use drones and other technologies to protect our borders," she told the BNS news agency.
"Not only with physical infrastructure, surveillance systems, but also with drones and other technologies, which would allow us to protect against provocations from unfriendly countries and to prevent smuggling," she said as cited by Reuters.
The countries agreed to assess the necessary measures, and later, with expert assistance, national authorities will draw up a plan for implementing the "drone wall."
Although Bilotaitė couldn’t provide a timeline for the implementation of the concept, she highlighted the possibility of utilizing EU funds for establishing this initiative, Poland’s TVP World reported.
(aj)
SOURCE: Reuters; TVP World