Politics

17:49, 06.08.2007 | Primorye Territory

Governor of the Russian Far Eastern Primorsky territory Sergei Darkin and Japanese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Masakazu Sekiguchi discussed in Vladivostok on Friday matters related to bilateral cooperation in the sphere of scrapping of nuclear-powered submarines of Russia\'s Pacific Fleet.

Governor of the Russian Far Eastern Primorsky territory Sergei Darkin and Japanese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Masakazu Sekiguchi discussed in Vladivostok on Friday matters related to bilateral cooperation in the sphere of scrapping of nuclear-powered submarines of Russia\'s Pacific Fleet.
The press centre of the Primorsky territory administration informed that the parties discussed the possibility of Japanese investments in the building of a floating dock and monitoring of the environment in the sphere of the nuclear submarines scrapping.
On Thursday, Sekiguchi visited the Zvezda military shipyard in Bolshoi Kamen where nuclear submarines are scrapped and signed there an agreement on cutting three nuclear-powered submarines of the Viktor-3 class decommissioned from the Pacific Fleet. This Russian-Japanese project is financed by the Japanese government and envisages the scrapping of another five nuclear submarines. The first submarine was shredded in 2004.
An agreement in principle on scrapping of another three submarines was reached in November 2005. The cutting work will begin in the coming days.
During the meeting with the governor Sekiguchi expressed the hope that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vladivostok will be successful. He also approved the Russian side’s proposal to hold in Vladivostok this year a regular meeting of the bilateral Intergovernmental Commission for trade-economic cooperation.

- ITAR-TASS