Russian official: Northeast Passage traffic at 65 mln tns by ‘20

MOSCOW, Sep 1 (PRIME) -- The cargo traffic by the Northeast Passage can increase manifold to 65 million tonnes a year by 2020 because Russia’s foreign partners, in particular, China, are interested in the opportunities its use can offer, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council, told reporters on Thursday.

“Under various estimates, cargo traffic by the Northeast Passage can increase by several tens of times to 65 million tonnes a year by 2020,” Patrushev said.

He said that urther development of the transportation capacity of the route going across Russia’s Arctic zones depends on the development of the Arctic natural resources and the creation of conditions to export products of the North Urals and West Siberia via ports in Arctic Siberia.

“The interest of Korea and Singapore in the context of the Northeast Passage is mainly connected with a possibility of commercial partnership with the Russian side in modernization of ports and organization of their work,” Patrushev said.

End