Russia, Japan to cooperate in combating seafood smuggling

Director of the Federal Frontier Service Konstantin Totsky highly appreciates the efforts by the Japanese frontier department to combat seafood smuggling, he said at a brief press conference after negotiations with his Japanese counterpart, head of the Japan Coast Guard, Katsuhiko Nawano. Totsky stressed that the cooperation between the Russian and Japanese frontier services, started in spring 2002 in order to prevent seafood smuggling from Russia to Japan, "mainly aims at preserving and reproducing marine biological resources".

"If we do not conduct these joint activities, our children will be only reading in books about such seafood as a sea-urchin or a trepang," he pointed out.

During the two-hour talks on Monday the Russian and Japanese frontier chiefs also discussed the exchange of courtesy visits by the countries' coastal protection ships and other forms of cooperation between the departments. "The fight against international terrorism, arms and ammunition smuggling, and illegal migration are becoming priorities in cooperation between our countries' frontier services," Totsky stressed.