RUSSIA is seeking China's help in developing an Arctic sea route that could almost halve the journey time between Europe and Asia, reports Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.
russia hopes the Northern Sea Route (NSR) will become a year-round shipping lane if global warming makes it possible to send ships through waters that were previously only passable in summer.
Some shipping is already using the route, but at the moment it is only passable for around 20 to 30 days a year along a 5,600-kilometre stretch between the Kara Sea, off the northwest coast of Siberia, to the Bering Strait.
But if more ice melts, the route may eventually be extended to Scandinavia and offer easier access to the North Sea than the Baltic.
Travelling between Shanghai and St Petersburg along this route would take a cargo ship around 20 days, compared with around 36 days via the Red Sea and Suez Canal, according to Russian media.
Cargo carried along the route could reach 270 million tonnes by 2035 - a nearly 10-fold increase on 2022, according to Rosatom, the Russian agency that oversees the sea lane.
The impact of Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has increased Moscow's sense of urgency in developing and expanding its use.
Although China relies on the sea to transport more than 60 per cent of its trade by volume so the route could help offset the risk from using existing routes, Wang Yue, a doctoral researcher at Tampere University in Finland, said 'Russia is significantly more motivated than China' to develop the route.
Mr Wang, who specialises in security and geopolitics in the Arctic, said the importance the two countries attached to the route 'greatly varied'.
'For Russia, the Arctic region is a top strategic and economic priority, and the NSR is crucial for transporting its abundant Arctic resources to the market,' he said.
'In contrast, while the Arctic is important to China, it is just one of many emerging strategic areas, and the NSR is merely a valuable alternative to traditional shipping routes.'
SeaNews Turkey
russia hopes the Northern Sea Route (NSR) will become a year-round shipping lane if global warming makes it possible to send ships through waters that were previously only passable in summer.
Some shipping is already using the route, but at the moment it is only passable for around 20 to 30 days a year along a 5,600-kilometre stretch between the Kara Sea, off the northwest coast of Siberia, to the Bering Strait.
But if more ice melts, the route may eventually be extended to Scandinavia and offer easier access to the North Sea than the Baltic.
Travelling between Shanghai and St Petersburg along this route would take a cargo ship around 20 days, compared with around 36 days via the Red Sea and Suez Canal, according to Russian media.
Cargo carried along the route could reach 270 million tonnes by 2035 - a nearly 10-fold increase on 2022, according to Rosatom, the Russian agency that oversees the sea lane.
The impact of Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has increased Moscow's sense of urgency in developing and expanding its use.
Although China relies on the sea to transport more than 60 per cent of its trade by volume so the route could help offset the risk from using existing routes, Wang Yue, a doctoral researcher at Tampere University in Finland, said 'Russia is significantly more motivated than China' to develop the route.
Mr Wang, who specialises in security and geopolitics in the Arctic, said the importance the two countries attached to the route 'greatly varied'.
'For Russia, the Arctic region is a top strategic and economic priority, and the NSR is crucial for transporting its abundant Arctic resources to the market,' he said.
'In contrast, while the Arctic is important to China, it is just one of many emerging strategic areas, and the NSR is merely a valuable alternative to traditional shipping routes.'
SeaNews Turkey
