Russia will be more intensively in contact with China, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Deputy head of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Russian Foreign Ministry Evgeny Varganov said during a round table in the Federation Council.
“Of course, one of the also important priorities and, probably, underused initiatives now, is the Northern Sea Route transport initiative. In this regard, of course, it is important for us to connect, develop contacts not only through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other departments, but also through parliament with explanations about the possibilities and effectiveness of using this transport route, first of all, these are countries such as China, India and ASEAN countries.”
According to him, the use of this route will not only significantly reduce the delivery time from the Asia-Pacific region to Europe, but will also potentially provide an opportunity to build new routes for the supply of Russian energy resources from Arctic fields to end consumers in friendly countries.
