27 February 2010
search and rescue
According to portnews the Arctic Council will institute a common framework for search and rescue operations, so claims State Secretary, Deputy Transport Minister Sergei Aristov in the opening speech of the first meeting of the Task Force of the Arctic Council. According to the report, it is the view of the Minister that ’ the creation of a unified regional Arctic search and rescue systems, including coordination of rescue forces, would also be a significant step in implementing the national objectives of all States Parties to the Arctic Council’. The relevant ministries of the Russian Federation would be the Ministry of Transport and the Foreign Ministry.
This would be a priority for Russia. Very often it is possible to read reports of ships in difficulties. There have been notifications before on this blog and правда, for example, reports today on the stranded freighter Kapitan Ryabov, stranded in ice that is.
And as A. Davidenko, Head of the Federal Agency of Maritime and River Transport explained, the winter of 2010 has proven to be one of the most difficult and has revealed weaknesses in Russia’s ice-breaking and organizational capacities.
N.B. Arctic Russia will run only intermittently until March 9th for various reasons. Normal service will be resumed around then.
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