Russia and China discussing matters of cargo insurance along Northern Sea Route

MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - Russia and China are discussing the issues of attracting China's banking system to insure cargo along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev said on the VGTRK Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"Many owners of vessels do not currently use the Northern Sea Route, simply because the cargo is not insured, though it needs to be insured. We talked about this during a meeting with the leaders of the People's Republic of China, because China has a very powerful banking system. They would be quite capable of this," Trutnev said.

Trutnev also said that the NSR is "a new, competitive global artery, which could well handle part of the volumes of the Suez Canal."