Baltic Fleet Commander Visits Germany

08.11.2011 Baltic Fleet (BF) Commander Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov with a group of officers arrives to Hamburg on Nov 8. The visit of Russian delegation is held on invitation of German Navy Commander Vice Admiral Manfred Nielson.

In the period of Nov 8-11 Russian officers will familiarize with service conditions in German Navy HQ; commanders will discuss issues of bilateral cooperation between Baltic Fleet and German Navy.

BF Commander will visit submarine training center in Eckernfoerde, inspect simulators imitating German subs, and watch service and living conditions of German marines.

The program also includes visiting of 2nd Flotilla HQ in Wilhelmshaven. BF officers will visit frigate Karlskruhe and get acquainted with shipboard service. After that, the delegation will board auxiliary vessel Berlin.

Through recent 10 years, mutual visits of military delegations and warships have become a good tradition in bilateral relationship of Russian and German navies. Since 2000, Baltic Fleet ships have called at German ports 17 times; in their turn, German mariners have visited BF naval bases 8 times. Current visit of BF Commander is the third one throughout recent years. The last one was in Oct 2007.

Recall that BF delegation headed by Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov recently paid an official visit to Sweden on invitation of Swedish Chief of Naval Staff Rear Admiral Jan Thörnqvist.