On December 19, 2016 the North-Western Basin Branch was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, of the Transport Agency, among them was the personnel of VTS and pilotage service departments of the Finnish Republic, and the representatives of ARCTIA Ltd, in order to develop cooperation between the parties for the implementation of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Finland on Cooperation and Interaction in Icebreaker Assistance in the Baltic Sea.

At the meeting, the participants discussed in detail all aspects of the organization of icebreakers operation by the both countries in the Gulf of Finland.  

As result the Parties adopted a unified scheme of interaction for providing Russian and Finnish icebreakers and planned signing of framework agreements between the parties for practical implementation of the interstate agreement.

On 20 December the Finnish delegation visited the Situation Center of the Basin Committee on Icebreaker Escorts near and within Russian ports of the Baltic Sea where Representatives of FGBI "AMP of the Baltic Sea" and Andrei Balashov, Deputy Director of the North-Western Basin Branch for Safe Navigation, told their Finnish colleagues about the center’s activities and about the current navigation and ice situation at the approaches to and in the water area of Big Port St. Petersburg and Passenger Port Saint-Petersburg.

The guests from Finland also visited the Murmansk icebreaker of North-Western Basin Branch. Captain Yury Akhromkin told them about the icebreaker’s technical characteristics and features of 21900М Project icebreakers.