The "Arctic Express," also known as "Northern Sea Route Express No. 1," involves delivering cargo to China via the Northern Sea Route (NSR) from Arkhangelsk. It enables exporters from the central and northwestern regions of Russia to supply goods to China without transit through third countries. Currently, it is the shortest existing economic corridor from Europe to Asia.
The "Arctic Express No. 1" route starts from the Bely Rast station of the Moscow railway junction, proceeds to Arkhangelsk by rail, and then continues by sea via the NSR to Shanghai.
This is a multimodal route: 1,200 km by rail, not towards the Trans-Siberian Railway, but in the opposite direction [...] and then a little over six thousand [km] [...] to Shanghai. Today's opening of the route is, in essence, the establishment of stable logistics links between our countries/
Chinese-Russian container transportation via the NSR is already operational: it began in July 2023. As Zhang Hanhui, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the PRC to the Russian Federation, stated at the launch ceremony of the "Arctic Express," 14 round trips have already been completed. Overall, in 2023, the volume of bilateral trade between China and Russia amounted to 240 billion dollars. The diplomat noted that the volume of bilateral trade is also growing in 2024: from January to May, it increased by 2.9% compared to the same period last year, reaching 96.5 billion dollars.
Cooperation between Moscow and Beijing in the development of the Northern Sea Route will expand. In June, during the SPIEF, Rosatom State Corporation signed an agreement with the Chinese shipping company Hainan Yangpu NewNew Shipping Co. Ltd to establish a joint venture for the construction of high ice-class vessels. The parties also agreed to organize year-round international transportation via the NSR.
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