PF warship Admiral Panteleyev to visit Japan

13.10.2010 Pacific Fleet (PF) large ASW ship Admiral Panteleyev sailed off Vladivostok Monday to pay informal visit to Japanese port of Hakodate, reported RIA Novosti citing representative of PF press-service.

"The visit will be held under the flag of Capt 1 rank Viktor Sokolov, PF Primorsk flotilla commander. Main objective is strengthening of naval cooperation and bilateral contacts between Russian and Japanese mariners", said the interviewee.

According to him, the crew of Admiral Panteleyev is going to have a rich visit program in Oct 15-19. Among scheduled activities are courtesy calls to Hakodate mayor, the chairman of municipal assembly, and the head of city's industrial chamber.

"Pacific mariners will have an opportunity to familiarize with the city's history, visit museums and memorial sites, meet with Japanese sailors and host them aboard the Russian warship. They will also compete with their Japanese counterparts in soccer and volleyball", added the interviewee.

According to the press service, the forthcoming call is the first time Russian naval servicemen visit Hokkaido Island in the current century. Russia's contemporary history saw eight visits of Japanese warships in Vladivostok and one call at the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski.

"PF servicemen have visited the Land of the Rising Sun seven times. They've been to Maizuru, Yokosuka, Sasebo, Kure, Tokyo. The coming visit to Japan will be the eighth one. All of them have been culminated with joint naval exercises like anti-terror, arms and drugs smuggling, and anti-poaching drills, as well as distressed ships salvage practice", specified the PF representative.