The Nation - News from April 24, 1989
Siberia and Alaska officials were forced by fog and blowing snow to resort to telephone diplomacy in their efforts to win approval for regular visits between the countries by Eskimos. Gov. Steve Cowper and the Alaska delegation were grounded in Nome, so he used a radio-telephone hookup to communicate with his counterpart from the Magadan region of the Soviet Far East, Vyacheslav I. Kobets. Kobets was on the ice pack at the international date line between the Diomede islands. A largely symbolic protocol signed by Cowper calls for a commission to oversee travel between the countries.
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