vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #532 / Social life / Reading article...

U.S. Ambassador to Russia William Burns is expected to arrive in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Wednesday to open a U.S. Consulate agent office in the city which has been fueling with international business activities since the start of oil and gas projects in 1999 in Sakhalin.

The consular agent will provide a wide range of services to numerous U.S. citizens currently residing in Sakhalin, from assisting in organizing visits of state and business representatives to offering help in urgent situations, a press statement from U.S. Consulate in the Russian Far East reported. The agent will become one of the 55 U.S. agents working in 29 of the world’s countries.

Though having considerable authority, the consular agent will not perform a number of functions which are executed solely by the U.S. Consulate General in Vladivostok or the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, such as granting visas to Russian citizens, the statement said.

Meanwhile, a chancellery of S. Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs may be opened in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk this fall, officials from Sakhalin’s Department for International Relations announced Wednesday.

The department officials discussed details of the chancellery opening with Jun Dae Wan, a South Korea’s Consul General based in Vladivostok, and offered the Consul five area variants for its location in the city’s business district. The officials expect to receive an authorized response after the South Korean government considers all the variants proposed.