Russia and China expressed their intention to increase mutual cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route to at least 50 million tonnes per year by 2030, the Russian government announced following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China this week.
They also discussed the development of bilateral technological cooperation in the fuel and energy sector.
Putin said from Beijing that they are building the North-South international corridor that will connect Russian ports on the Baltic and Arctic seas to ports in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
“From Murmansk in the north of Russia to Bandar Abbas in Iran,” the president noted at the opening of the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation took place in Beijing on October 17–18, ten years after the initiative was launched.
“The parties outlined steps to increase the transit potential of the Northern Sea Route with the prospect of expanding cargo traffic along this route between the countries to at least 50 million tonnes per year by 2030,” the Russian government said in a statement, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
It was also reported that the Russian president set the task of increasing cargo turnover on the route to 80 million tonnes in 2024, and that there is a plan for the development of the Northern Sea Route through 2035 with a total funding of almost 1.8 trillion rubles.
Representatives of Russian authorities emphasized that the NSR could become a new international transport alternative, and that Russia is ready for international partnerships in the development of the route.
Deputy prime minister of Russia Alexander Novak noted during his visit to China that “A further increase in natural gas exports to China will be ensured via the Far Eastern route. A route via Mongolia based on the Soyuz-Vostok pipeline is also under discussion. Russia is number 4 among the LNG exporters to China. Considering the projects that are currently at the implementation stage, Russia might become the main reliable LNG supplier to China in the future,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
In accordance with Kremlin, Putin noted at the opening ceremony that Russia is working jointly with its foreign partners to build railway lines, from Central Siberia towards the south of the country, towards China, Mongolia and the ports of the Indian and Pacific oceans.
“These north-south transport corridors in European Russia, Siberia and the Far East will allow us to directly connect the Northern Sea Route and to integrate it into major logistics hubs in the south of our continent on the Indian and Pacific oceans,” the Russian president noted.
Putin made these statements during the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, in the presence of Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russia´s deputy prime minister Alexander Novak, and other Kremlin officials also attended the forum in the Chinese capital.
The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (also known as the Belt and Road Forum) is an international political and economic forum of the Belt and Road Initiative.
The forum will be a platform for working out action plans for implementation of the initiative in the areas of infrastructure, energy and resources, production capacity, trade and investment and identification of major projects.
It is also intended to be an opportunity for the signing of cooperation agreements with countries and international organizations in the areas of financial cooperation mechanism, a cooperation platform for science, technology and environmental protection, and enhanced exchanges and training of talent and financing agreements for backing projects.
