Posted at 9:34 a.m., Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Russian delegation in Hawai'i planning naval drill
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Russia and the United States will hold joint naval anti-terrorism exercises in the Sea of Japan in September, a U.S. diplomat said Tuesday, a news report said.The drills, called Pacific Eagle, will be the two countries' biggest joint exercise since 1998, said John Mark Pommersheim, U.S. consul general in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, according to the Interfax news agency.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow had no immediate comment.
A Russian delegation is in Hawai'i working out the program for the exercises, Pommersheim said.
Last month, Russia's parliament's lower house endorsed a key treaty on joint military exercises with NATO members, which streamlines the organization of drills and defines the status of foreign troops during training. The document must now be approved by the parliament's upper chamber.
Moscow's failure to commit to the treaty has in the past led to several cancellations of the drills, including when it pulled out of exercises with the United States in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod last fall.
Relations between Moscow and Washington have soured in the past year. The two former Cold War foes are at odds over Washington's missile defense plans, Russia's conflicts with former Soviet nations and U.S. concerns of democratic backsliding in Russia.
