Visit of US Coast Guard`s delegation to Kamchakta postponed

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, September 21 (Itar-Tass) - A visit to
Kamchatka by an official delegation of the 17th District of the U.S. Coast
Guard, which was expected to arrive here Monday, has been postponed due to
stormy weather over the northernmost areas of the Pacific and the Chukotka
Peninsula, Russian security officials told Itar-Tass.
Spokespeople for the Northeast Border Department of the Federal
Security Service /FSB/ recalled that a group of senior officers of the
U.S. Coast Guard led by Rear Admiral Christopher Colvin was to arrive in
Kamchatka from Anchorage, Alaska, aboard an S-130 jet of the Coast Guard.
"During two days, gale and heavy rainfall didn't allow the jet to take
off and take the designated route, and because of this the visit has been
put off indefinitely," a spokesman said.
When the delegation finally arrives in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky,
documents regulating the joint operations of the U.S. Coast Guard and the
Northeast branch of the FSB's Border Service in 2011 will be signed.
At the same time, poor weather did not put any obstacles to the
arrival of the U.S. Coast Guard's cutter Jarvis in the port of
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
It called into the Avacha Bay with a friendly visit after a joint
exercise with the Russian frigate Vorovsky.
U.S. seamen will stay in Kamchatka through to September 23. The agenda
of events scheduled for the days of the visit includes a soccer football
game that the crews of the two ships will play on the football pitch of
the city's main stadium.
Monday, September 20, the Jarvis and the Vorovsky held joint
maneuvering in the neutral waters of the Pacific, simulating aid to
distressed ships on high seas. The exercise involved deck-based
helicopters from the two ships.
The Commander of the Northeast Border Department of the FSB, Rafael
Dayebayev, is expected to hear a report on the maneuvering from the
Vorovsky and the Jarvis captains.
Since the beginning of the 1990's, forces of the Northeast Border
Department and the U.S. Coast Guard District 17 do a joint and alternate
patrolling of the so-called Convention areas of the Bering Sea and the
Pacific. They also patrol the Russia-U.S. maritime delimitation line.
The two departments maintain permanent exchange of information and
operational experience.