Northern Sea Route Gains Interest as Strategic Alternative to Malacca Strait

The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is attracting the attention of countries in the Asia-Pacific region not only as a route for transporting raw materials, Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunkov told TASS.

"Unfortunately, we cannot ignore the security issues associated with risks of military conflicts in the East China Sea, military conflicts related to the actions of Western navies, which we are currently observing in the Strait of Hormuz. Therefore, the NSR, as a potential backup route and a parallel route to the Strait of Malacca, is of such high interest and will be exploited by Asian partners not only for the transportation of raw materials," he said.

Asian countries are exploring the possibilities of shipping along the Northern Sea Route, the minister added. "There’s a Russian proverb, 'Prepare the sled in the summer', which, if translated into Chinese or Korean, probably means 'Prepare your ice-class container ship 10 years in advance'. They are already making trial runs, sailing during the navigation period, when ice support is not needed, but to learn the routes and study the seabed along the way, the ships are most probably well-equipped because they understand and see the prospects of the NSR," he explained.

The future of the Northern Sea Route is actually linked to container shipping, Chekunkov noted. "This route between Europe and Asia is shorter. However, this isn’t a prospect for the next two, three, or even five years. It’s a prospect for 10, 20, or 30 years, when the ice conditions actually become even easier, and the icebreaker infrastructure, on the contrary, the entire NSR infrastructure, the icebreaker group, the ice-class fleet, the emergency rescue and space infrastructure reach a level that will allow for safe, systematic, and large-scale navigation between Asia and Europe along the NSR," he said.