Int'l border guarding exercises to be held in summer

VLADIVOSTOK, April 28 (Itar-Tass) - Regular international border
guarding exercises will be held in the Primorsky (Maritime) Territory in
summer this year. This was announced here on Thursday during a meeting
between Vladivostok Vice-Mayor Alexei Litvinov and a delegation of the
National Maritime Police Agency (NMPA) of the Republic of Korea (ROK).
An official in the press service of the city administration has told
Itar-Tass that the ROK delegation arrived in Vladivostok expressly for
solving organizational matters concerning the holding of the exercises.
The delegation is led by Lee Phuong-hyon, head of the NMPA search and
rescue department.
International exercises, held under the motto of "Pacific Cooperation
for Security", are one of components of the programme for cooperation
among the Coast Guard services of Northern Pacific countries. The
programme has been functioning since the year 2000.
Participants in the programme are Russia, ROK, the People's Republic
of China, the United States, Japan, and Canada, which combined their
efforts in tackling common tasks such as fight against poaching and
smuggling, against maritime terrorists, the rendering of assistance to the
crews of ships in distress.
Such exercises were last held in August last year in the Gulf of Peter
the Great, not far from Vladivostok. The exercises continued for two days.
On the first day, Coast Guard ships and aviation of Russia, China, and ROK
drilled cooperative actions. The second day was devoted to the training of
the border guards of Russia, Japan, and the US.