Several Countries Interested Developing Russia's Northern Sea Route - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th September, 2019) Denmark, Japan, Norway, South Korea and several other countries have expressed interest in investing into the infrastructure of Russia's Northern Sea Route, Nikolai Korchunov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large for international Arctic cooperation, told Sputnik.

In late August, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it was interested in deepening cooperation with other countries to develop the Northern Sea Route and surrounding infrastructure which includes several large-scale projects such as building ports around the passageway and building an icebreaker fleet.

"Our foreign partners � Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway, South Korea and Switzerland � all have a growing interest in the prospective development of the Northern Sea Route for international maritime transport from Asia to Europe," Korchunov said, adding that the route was a major point of discussion during the Eastern Economic Forum, which ended on Friday.

He added that the Northern Sea Route was currently the only active Arctic route and that foreign investment would help resolve some of the pressing issues such as the modernization of ports and infrastructure in the region.

The Northern Sea Route is Russia's main Arctic shipping path and the shortest maritime passage between the Far East and the European part of the country. The route is expected to become a shorter alternative to the passage through the Suez Canal, the most common route nowadays for delivering cargo from Asian ports to Europe.