North Pacific Coast Guard Agencies Forum

North Pacific Coast Guard Forum

Member Countries Shown in Blue
Formation	2000
Type	Regional Cooperation Initiative
Headquarters	Meetings Rotate Between Member States
Membership	6 member states

The North Pacific Coast Guard Forum (NPCGF) was initiated by the Japan Coast Guard in 2000 as a venue to foster multilateral cooperation through the sharing of information on matters related to combined operations, exchange of information, illegal drug trafficking, maritime security, fisheries enforcement, illegal migration, and maritime domain awareness. The current membership includes agencies from Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States.

The first Forum was held in Tokyo in 2000 and has followed an alternating semi-annual cycle of technical experts and principals meetings since. Between 2000 and 2005, meetings were sponsored by Japan, Russia, United States, Korea, Canada and Japan.

The forum has had success in documenting best practices from the member countries in areas of illegal drug trafficking, maritime security, fisheries enforcement and illegal migration, has a web-based information exchange system, and has published a manual for combined operations.

The cooperation fostered in the forum was successfully tested during a tabletop exercise in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in March 2004 involving the tracking of a fictitious vessel suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction as it transited the international waters off each member country’s coast. During the summer of 2005, the forum planned and executed actual at-sea combined operations were conducted to enforce Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported (IUU) Fisheries regulations in the North Pacific Ocean. Member nations noted the success of the 2005 combined operations and have continued them in recent years.