MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. All exporting countries consider the development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) to be very promising, First Deputy Minister for the Development of the Far East and Arctic Gadzhimagomed Guseynov said.
"The entire world community, all exporting countries consider the development of the Northern Sea Route to be very promising. Global maritime transportation is closely linked to the development of the global economy," he said at the round table "Legal and organizational regulation of the development of the Northern Sea Route."
"The traditional route - the Suez Canal - is limited in capacity. <…> Experts [estimate] that trade turnover between Asia and Europe [reaches] up to $500 bln. Part of this cargo could go via the Northern Sea Route," he explained.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev reported that the cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route in 2024 amounted to 37.9 million tons, exceeding the previous record result by more than 1.6 million tons. In 2024, a record number of transit passages was made (92) setting a record for transit cargo (more than 3 million tons), which is almost one and a half times more than in 2023.
The Northern Sea Route is a shipping route and the main sea line in the Russian Arctic sector. It stretches along northern coasts of Russia across the seas of the Arctic Ocean (Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi and Bering seas). The route consolidates European and Far Eastern ports of Russia and navigable river mouths in Siberia into a single transport system. The route’s length is 5,600 km from the Kara Strait to the Providence Bay.