NORTHERN SEA ROUTE AS A MODERN SILK ROAD: THE PERSPECTIVES FOR INDIA

The Chennai-Vladivostok Sea corridor has been actively developing now, and the joint development of the Northern Sea Route will allow India to gain reliable access to huge Russian hydrocarbon deposits located on the Arctic shelf.

- Dr ALEXANDER NAKHABOV

In November 2021 the first Russian tanker with batch of LNG from Yamal plant in Siberia arrived in India through the Northern Sea Route- emerging trade route from Europe along the Russian Arctic coast to the Bering Strait. The shipment marks an important step in developing I bulk energy trading between Russia and India and deepening of their strategic partnership.

For hundreds of years, merchant routes from Western Europe to India and the Far East have been of extraordinary importance in international trade. Till now, the two main sea routes remain through the Suez Canal and around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope. At the same time, from the 16th century, searches were carried out for other passages from Europe to the Far East - the North-West and North-East. The North-East passage is now termed the Northern Sea Route (NSR).

The main advantage of the Northern Sea Route in comparison with the traditional ones is its length- the route from the ports of Western Europe to China and Japan will be approximately half as long as through the Suez Canal, not to mention the route around Africa. But for many centuries, this advantage remained unutilised due to a main drawback- most of the Northern Sea Route passes through the seas of the Arctic Ocean, which, for a significant part of the year are bound by thick ice, making it almost impossible for merchant ships to pass. Nevertheless, for the first time the entire length of the Northern Sea Route was passed almost 150 years ago and in 1935 the first transport operation on this route was carried out.