Russia to ensure all-year navigation on Northern Sea Route, inviting foreign partners to use this route - Putin

MOSCOW. Feb 29 (Interfax) - Russia will ensure all-year navigation on the Northern Sea Route and is inviting foreign partners to use this route, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his address to the Federal Assembly.

"Special attention is being given to further developing the Northern Sea Route. We are inviting foreign logistics companies [and] countries to actively use the capabilities of this global transport corridor. Thirty-six million tonnes of cargo was carried on it last year. Colleagues, that is five times the record of the Soviet Union," he said.

"We will ensure all-year navigation on the Northern Sea Route, [and] we will increase the turnover of our northern ports, including the Murmansk transport hub. And of course, we will increase the [size of the] Arctic fleet. The unique research icebreaker platform Severny Polyus went out last year. The keel of the new nuclear-powered icebreaker Leningrad was laid down at the Baltic shipyard at the beginning of this year, and we will lay down the keel of another ship of this class, the Stalingrad, next year. The new generation icebreaker Lider, which has twice as much capacity, is being built at the Zvezda Far Eastern shipyard. We are planning to considerably modernize the trade fleet, tankers, gas carriers and container carriers at our domestic shipyards. This will enable Russian businesses to build effective flows in a situation involving changing logistics [and] fundamental changes in the global economy," the president said.

The Russian president previously set the task of increasing cargo turnover on the Northern Sea Route to 80 million tonnes in 2024. Some state decisions to intensify hydrocarbon projects along the Northern Sea Route and to develop infrastructure and the fleet on this route were made over the past few years, including a plan to develop the Northern Sea Route in the period until 2035 with a total volume of financing at almost 1.8 trillion rubles.

The Russian authorities have said the Northern Sea Route, which is 30% shorter than the route running through the Suez Canal, can become a new international transport alternative, and Russia is ready for international partnerships to develop the route.

The borders of the Northern Sea Route are outlined in the Commercial Navigation Code, from the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the west to Cape Dezhnyov in Chukotka.