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[Lex]

Sebastopol in Ukraine is the home base of this country’s Black Sea Naval Fleet. NATO delegates there are meeting with Russian naval commanders to finalize plans for joint submarine rescue exercises off Spain in the 12 days beginning with May 29th.

There will be surface ships and submarines from Spain, the United States, Great Britain, Italy and Portugal. The Americans are to deploy a new underwater robot. The Russian Black Sea Fleet is sending a diesel-powered sub, four surface ships and a whole range of mini-submersibles, both robotic and manned. Its robots on the exercise will include a British-made Panther Plus.

In a historic first, the sides will be practising rescues of each other’s submarine crews.

We hear about this from the Russian analyst Dr Vladimir Yevseyev:

"Apart from honing their skills, the naval rescuers on the games will certainly contribute to mutual confidence between the sides. This, in turn, should help Russia and NATO pursue their ‘resetting of relations’ policies and jointly tackle threats from unstable regimes. Russia is also strengthening its say in international decision-making on key global security problems."

The Voice of Russia,
Apr 18, 2011 20:55 Moscow Time