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Northern Sea Route development emerges as priority amid global logistics crisis — aide

Anton Kobyakov highlighted that the Northern Sea Route is one of the key, safe and financially viable trade routes

VLADIVOSTOK, September 4. /TASS/. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) stands out as a safe and highly cost-effective corridor amid the ongoing crisis in global logistics, Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the Russian President and Executive Secretary of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) Organizing Committee, told a press briefing.

"Today, against the backdrop of the global logistics crisis, the Northern Sea Route is one of the key, safe, and financially viable trade routes. It is a matter of pure economics: delivery times via the Northern Sea Route are 2 to 2.5 times shorter, if not more, compared to alternative routes," Kobyakov said.

He explained that bottleneck issues are currently being observed, particularly at the Panama Canal and the Strait of Hormuz. The crisis is disrupting cargo transit between Europe and Asia, slowing down trade between the two continents. In this situation, the trans-Arctic transport corridor - and the NSR in particular - looks increasingly critical. "The President has set a goal to transform the entire trans-Arctic transport corridor into a year-round, safe, and competitive route stretching from St. Petersburg and Murmansk, via the Northern Sea Route, to Vladivostok and the Asia-Pacific region. Leading Asian economies have grasped this; China has realized it, and the Republic of Korea has understood it as well," Kobyakov noted.

The Eastern Economic Forum took place on September 1-4 in Vladivostok at the Far Eastern Federal University campus. The main theme of the 2026 forum was "The Far East: Development for the Benefit of People." It was organized by the Roscongress Foundation with the support of the Government of the Russian Federation. TASS served as the general information partner.