GENEVA, April 24. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) and Switzerland will intensify co-operation in the sphere of prevention of emergencies, first of all in the development of mountain rescue technology and exchange of experience. They will also study the issue of joint medical evacuation actions.

EMERCOM spokesman Aleksandr Drobyshevsky told ITAR-TASS that “at a meeting of Russia's Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov with head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) Martin Dahinden and head of the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP) Willi Scholl, it was said that Russia and Switzerland would implement the Russian-Swiss humanitarian response and civil protection agreements.”

“It was said at the meeting that studying Swiss mountain rescue technology is a key direction of Russian-Swiss co-operation. The experience of the creation and functioning of helicopter rescue bases, for example, the Air Zermatt airbase, is of special interest,” Drobyshevsky said.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry for its part is ready to develop the potential for the joint use of personnel in humanitarian actions and operations, as well as for regular exchange of experts at the national and local level for the transfer of experience in the sphere of civil defence and protection.

“The Russian side confirmed readiness to build up the emergency humanitarian response operations, improve effectiveness of international development assistance projects on a multilateral basis practically in any regions of the world, including with the involvement of the United Nations, International Civil Defense Organisation (ICDO), the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement,” Drobyshevsky said.

“It was also said at the meeting that Russia’s Emergencies Ministry is ready to introduce certified methods for the search and rescue of people in settlements, cities and industrial agglomerations, interact in the interests of emergency and special medicine, including on the base of the St. Petersburg-based All-Russian Centre of Emergency and Radiation Medicine, its branches, as well as similar Swiss centres. Also, joint cross-border medical evacuation actions are possible,” Drobyshevsky said.

The Russian emergencies minister invited his colleagues, whose office term expires this year, to visit the international Integrated Safety and Security Exhibition (ISSE) - 2014. Martin Dahinden and Willi Scholl assured Puchkov that “they would recommend their successors to actively co-operate with Russia and develop bilateral relations.