MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. Russia will be more intensively in contact with China, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Deputy head of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Russian Foreign Ministry Evgeny Varganov said during a round table in the Federation Council.
"Of course, one of the also important priorities and, probably, underused initiatives now, is the Northern Sea Route transport initiative. In this regard, of course, it is important for us to connect, develop contacts not only through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other departments, but also through parliament with explanations about the possibilities and effectiveness of using this transport route, first of all, these are countries such as China, India and ASEAN countries."
According to him, the use of this route will not only significantly reduce the delivery time from the Asia-Pacific region to Europe, but will also potentially provide an opportunity to build new routes for the supply of Russian energy resources from Arctic fields to end consumers in friendly countries.
"In this regard, in order to attract foreign shippers for transit use of the route and the prospects for consolidating the route in the international trade system and logistics, it is necessary to ensure timely and, probably, effective informing of our foreign colleagues about the prospects and conditions for using the Northern Sea Route," Varganov stressed.
The Northern Sea Route is a shipping route and the main sea line in the Russian Arctic sector. It stretches along the northern coasts of Russia across the seas of the Arctic Ocean (Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi and Bering seas). The route consolidates the 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 Providence Bay.