Frontier guards of Russia and US are strengthening their cooperation

An agreement has been signed in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (the administrative center of the Kamchatka region) on joint actions of the Russian and the American frontier guards on protecting the biological resources in the convention areas of the Pacific Ocean in 2004.

As the chief of the North Eastern regional frontier department of the Russian Federal Security Service, Lieutenant General Valery Putov, said at the news conference on Friday, the delegation of the seventeenth district of the US Coast Guard, headed by Admiral James Underwood, had arrived in Kamchatka specially for considering and signing the documents on joint actions for protecting the marine biological resources in the convention areas of the Pacific Ocean in 2004.

Plans have also been mapped out for mutual exercises and patrolling, for exchanging experience in carrying out service and for an active information exchange.

According to James Underwood, the exchange of information makes it possible for the US coast guard and the Russian frontier guards to chase the ships which illegally fish in the waters of the two countries.

Thanks to joint efforts, this year the dividing line between the marine expanses of Russia and the United States has been practically not violated, pointed out James Underwood.

Since the beginning of 2003, the two countries exchanged 360 pieces of information about the operational situation in the convention areas.

The agreement on cooperation in protecting the water biological resources in the convention areas was concluded in 1997.