NEW DELHI, September 1. /TASS/. The consequences of the Middle East conflict for trade have increased the importance of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) for India, Rakesh Mishra, Chief Executive Officer of India’s freight forwarding company Y&H Cargo, who participates in the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), told TASS.

"Now the situation in the Middle East is not very clear, and many carriers cancel their service through the Suez Canal," he said.

"India ranks second in terms of business with Russia only after China. China has many routes, but India focused mainly on the western direction in the past. Now it has no choice due to the conflict but to develop the eastern route because it offers a shorter shipping route," Mishra added.

The Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coast cuts the travel time between India and China and lowers transit costs, he noted. "Shorter maritime distances translate to cheaper logistics and faster delivery windows for goods moving between Russian ports and Asian markets," the expert explained.

The absence of issues related to sanctions, which makes arranging cargo insurance against transport risks at highly favorable rates possible, is the key factor, he said, adding that Southeast Asia is the world’s largest manufacturing hub, and that this trade route is more efficient than the western direction.

The Northern Sea Route is a shipping route in the Russian Arctic that runs along Russia’s northern shores of the Arctic Ocean seas (the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi and Bering Seas). It connects the Russian Federation’s European and Far Eastern ports, as well as mouths of navigable Siberian rivers, into a single transport system. Its length from the Kara Gate Strait to the Providence Bay is 5,600 km. In 2025, cargo traffic along the NSR totaled 37.02 mln tons.

The Eastern Economic Forum is taking place on September 1-4 in Vladivostok on the campus of the Far Eastern Federal University. The main theme of this year’s EEF is "The Far East: Development for the Benefit of People." The event is organized by the Roscongress Foundation with the support of the Russian government. TASS is its general information partner.