US, Russia Planing Full-Scale Search-Rescue Exercise In Bering Strait Area - Coast Guard

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2020) The United States and Russia are planning large full-scale search and rescue exercises in Bering Strait area in the coming years, but have set no specific time-frame due to significant amount of preparatory work, US Coast Guard District 17 Incident Management and Preparedness Adviser Mark Everett said on Monday.

"We have plans now in our bilateral two-year work plan to continue to move to full scale exercises in the Bering Strait region," Everett said during an online conversation at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.

Everett noted that the last time the United States and Russia held such exercises was in 1998.

Everett, who co-chairs the Joint Planning Group for Russia-US Joint Marine Pollution Contingency Plan (JCP), said a significant degree of complexity and amount of organization is needed for such events.

He also said that such a thorough approach to organizing such exercises may stretch to several years.

Both countries are in the ramp-up stage of this partnership with "smaller segments of what a larger full scale exercise might look like," Everett added.