Asian giants India and China, two of Russia's largest trading partners, have offered to help in resolving the issue of shortage of ice-class vessels in partnership with Moscow, the head of the Russian Ministry for the Development of the Far East Alexei Chekunkov has said.
The ice-class vessels are extremely important for Russian trade given that without them "year-round navigation" would not be possible on the Northern Sea Route (NSR).
"I am most concerned about the availability of a sufficient number of ice-class fleet. I am waiting for the arrival of the Minister of Ports and Infrastructure of India at the Eastern Economic Forum, India is interested in joint work on the development of northern navigation and potentially in joint shipbuilding. This is quite a large ocean power. Of course, with China, we will be able to produce an ice-class fleet in sufficient quantities," he informed Russian media persons.
As per Chekunkov, the ice-class ships that are currently in use are not sufficient for transporting over 200 million tonnes of consignments along the NSR link in the next 7-8 years.
"The production cycle of a large ice-class tanker is not months, but years. These decisions need to be made very soon. Are there so many shipyards, are there specialists in so many - this is probably just the topic where it is interesting talk with our largest partners on the subject of cooperation," he pointed out.
Besides, he noted that as a sovereign power, Russia has the obligation to keep the NSR route open for trade purposes year-round.
He added that those companies that have already invested trillions of rubles in the extraction and liquefaction of gas, in the extraction of new oil, in the extraction of valuable metals, will in any case find a way to take their goods out.
"But for us, as a state, it is more profitable for the whole world to give this guaranteed route protected, year-round, predictable, with a regular schedule, and not leave it at the mercy of subsoil users and the largest companies. Therefore, this compromise will be implemented, we will complete the program for the development of the icebreaker fleet," Chekunkov concluded.