The following is the text of a press release issued by the U.S. Coast Guard:
(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — Rear Adm. Christopher Colvin, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District, is scheduled to host a bi-annual commanders meeting with Russian Lt. Gen. Raphael Alexeseevich Daerbaev, the chief of the Northeast Border Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia in Anchorage and Kodiak Sunday thru Wednesday.
The 17th District and the NBD routinely coordinate international fisheries enforcement operations, responses to distresses at sea and law enforcement operations along the U.S./Russian Maritime Boundary Line in the Bering Sea. These meetings are held to review ongoing and future operations for cooperative efforts against illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, mutual maritime law enforcement activities and future activities in the Arctic, the Bering Sea and the North Pacific.
As part of this year’s meetings, the Russian Federal Security Service vessel Vorovsky is scheduled to arrive in Kodiak Sunday. The Vorovsky crew will meet up with the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf participating in joint activities to include a crew cultural exchange and morale activities in Kodiak and a one-day joint law enforcement exercise and professional exchange in the Gulf of Alaska.
Similar meetings have been conducted since 1995 alternating between Alaska and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia. The last meeting in the United States was held in Anchorage April 2010.
The cutter Bertholf is the first of eight 418-foot Legend-class national security cutters being built to replace the 378-foot Hamilton-class cutters. The Bertholf is homeported in Alameda, Calif.
The Vorovsky is a Krivak-class patrol ship homeported in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka, Russia and has a crew of 167 personnel. The Vorovsky last visited Kodiak in 2007.
