Belarus planning to build fleet, port infrastructure in Russia within 2-3 years

MINSK. Feb 12 (Interfax) - Belarus may build a fleet and port infrastructure in Russia within two or three years, Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Dmitry Krutoi said.

"The four main routes discussed by our heads of state at the most recent meeting are, clearly, the Baltic ports as our basic route, alongside a major destination, Murmansk, the Northern Sea Route. We are also eyeing possible participation in the program to build a nuclear-powered fleet for navigation in severe weather," Krutoi said on the ONT television channel on Sunday.

"Why will the issue be highlighted in the near future, as our transport specialists say? Because China is interested. For its part, China has been actively testing the route in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, and other ports of the Northern Sea Route. We can see that the number of applications for transporting cargo to China via this route increases several times over every year. Indeed, this is related to geopolitics, the situation in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal," Krutoi said.

The Far East is another important route, Krutoi said. "We are keeping Far Eastern ports in mind, too," he said.

"The fourth element is the north and the south. We have 20 ports today, which is a perfect chance for both classic transshipment of our cargo and investment in these projects. When we have our own fleet, our own ships, we will be independent of Western infrastructure, the infrastructure of unfriendly states. We will own full-scale infrastructure and will be able to manage these logistic costs economically on our own. That is the maximum objective. I believe it will be reached within the next two or three years," Krutoi said.