SHANGHAI, September 22. /TASS/. The first cargo ship has set sail from the Chinese port of Ningbo-Zhoushan to the British city of Felixstowe via the Northern Sea Route, the Ningbo municipal government reported stressing that this is the world's first Arctic express route from China to Europe.
According to the statement, this route "will provide strong support to Chinese enterprises in overcoming the uncertainty in global trade and developing new international logistics channels." The vessel, Istanbul Bridge, carries goods sold through e-commerce platforms, as well as batteries and high-efficiency energy storage systems.
"The shipping route connecting East Asia and Europe is of strategic importance for optimizing global supply chains and developing trade and economic cooperation along this route," Ningbo authorities said in the statement.
In 2018, China published a White Paper on China's Arctic Policy, which stated that Beijing is prepared to work with all parties to build a "Polar Silk Road" through the development and use of Arctic shipping routes. Earlier, at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Vladimir Panov, Rosatom's special representative for the Arctic and deputy chairman of the State Commission for Arctic Development, announced a planned voyage with unloading in the intermediate ports of Felixstowe, Rotterdam, and Hamburg.
According to him, the voyage is scheduled to conclude in St. Petersburg on October 17-20. The Northern Sea Route is a shipping route and the main maritime route in the Russian Arctic. It runs along the northern shores of Russia through the seas of the Arctic Ocean.