Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Shintaro Ito to Visit Russian Far East

September 8, 2006

Mr. Shintaro Ito, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, will visit the Primorsky region and the Kamchatka Oblast in the Russian Far East from September 10 (Sun) to September 15 (Fri).
In the Primorsky region, Mr. Ito will attend the contract signing ceremony for a project to dismantle a Victor-I class nuclear submarine, one of the five submarines whose dismantlement the Japan-Russia Committee and the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy agreed on last November. This agreement is part of the "Star of Hope" program, a project for the dismantlement of decommissioned nuclear submarines in the Russian Far East. Mr. Ito is also scheduled to visit the site where the dismantlement will be taken place and other related facilities as well as to exchange views on the future of Japan-Russian cooperation with local government VIPs and others.
In the Kamchatka Oblast, Mr. Ito will visit the Northwest Regional Center for repair and dismantlement, at which another of the above five nuclear submarines (a Charlie-I class submarine) will be dismantled and exchange views on the future of Japan-Russian cooperation with local government VIPs and others.

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