Ecuadorian naval ship to make first-time visit to Vladivostok

VLADIVOSTOK, August 6 (Itar-Tass) - An Ecuadorian naval ship is going to make the first-ever visit to the Russian Pacific naval base of Vladivostok Tuesday, officials at the press service of Russia's Pacific Fleet told Itar-Tass.

Schoolship Guayas is commanded by Captain 1st Rank Freddy Garcia Colla
and has a 120-strong crew including 16 officers and 80 naval cadets.
In the course of the visit, the Ecuadorian seamen will be received by
top commanders of the Pacific Fleet and Vladivostok city mayor.
The hosts will organize bus tours of the city's sights for them and a
wide range of informal meetings with Russian naval officers and cadets.
The crew of the big antisubmarine ship Admiral Tributz under the
command of Captain 2nd Rank Sergei Sobokar will act as an official host to
the counterparts from Ecuador.
Soviet naval ships visited Ecuador on two occasions in the 1970's.
In 1973, the floating tender Ivan Kucherenko and the tanker Vishera
made a major tour of the South American countries including Ecuador - the
first-time such visit in the history of the Pacific Fleet.
In 1975, the crew of the naval hydrographic ship Leonid Sobolev made
an official visit to Ecuador.
However, Ecuadorian naval ships have not made a single visit to
Vladivostok since then.