Russia invites China to take part in cargo shipments to Northern Sea Route - Deputy PM Rogozin

ST.PETERSBURG, December 7. /TASS/. Russia has invited China to take part in delivery of cargos to the Northern Sea Route (NRS), Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said speaking at the Arctic Forum. "Our Chinese partners got interested in it. We do not rule out that there may be interests related to the economic development of the Silk Road. We proposed them to participate in such projects of building railways to transport cargos to the ports of the NSR. In fact, we can say now that this is not just the economic Silk Road but the cool (Arctic -TASS) Silk Road," - Rogozin said. The Northern Sea Route is the shortest route connecting Europe with the Far East, with the Asia-Pacific and the western part of North America. In summer Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed the integrated development plan of the Northern Sea Route. According to Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, over 600 permits are annually issued at present for transportation of goods over the Northern Sea Route and the yearly goods transportation volume equals 4 mln tonnes. "The potential estimated for the period of [the nearest] 15 years, and this is the implementation timeframe of the integrated plan, is over 80 mln tonnes. In other words, a twentyfold increase is possible," Dvorkovich said. Read more