International Shipping Routes for Cargo Transportation in the Arctic

Annotation

The main purpose of the article is to study the problems of the functioning and competition of sea routes of cargo transportation in the Arctic region. Methodologically, the work is of a research nature within the framework of the global integrated and northern regional studies, based on interdisciplinarity and complexity. A complex of interdisciplinary tasks is synthesized: to show, against the background of the history of the development of the water area of the northern seas, begun in the era of Velikiy Novgorod, the priority of Russians in the Arctic; the geopolitical and economic significance of the new projects of the Northern Sea Transport Corridor (SMTC), the National Arctic Transport Line (NATL) at the present time; to reveal the presence of many actors in the Arctic region of planet Earth. Operating water area of the Northern Sea Route in 2012–2020 based on legislative acts 1998, 1999, 2012. And while it does not provide a significant share of international transit, it is developing as an internal sea route. The article analyzes the literature of domestic and foreign authors and primary sources, including: Novgorod Chronicles, cartography, current legal acts, Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation and departmental documents of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for the development of the Far East and the Arctic, FSBI “Administration of the Northern Sea Route”, directorates Northern Sea Route of Rosatom State Corporation, International Monetary Fund (June 24, 2020), China White Book (2018), the Polar Silk Road project, etc. The plurality of sea routes for cargo transportation in the Arctic along the coast of Russia, off the coast of Canada, the Arctic Bridge, the Trans-Arctic sea route, the Polar Silk Road of China; modernization of the NSR infrastructure; implementation of investment projects of the oil and gas and mining complex of global significance generates new challenges and opportunities for the development of the Russian Arctic.

About authors

Yury F. LUKIN, Doc. Sci. (Hist.), professor, honored worker of the higher school of the Russian Federation
Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Arkhangelsk, Russia

Keywords

Northern Sea Route, Northern Sea Transport Corridor, National Arctic transport line, Arctic sea Bridge, Trans-Arctic sea route, China's Polar Silk Road

DOI

10.37482/issn2221-2698.2020.40.225

UDC

341.225(98)(045)