Vladimir Putin, Russian President, invited foreign investors to participate in the construction of port infrastructure in Murmansk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky that would serve the Northern Sea Route, during the plenary meeting of the 5th International Arctic Forum “The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue” on April 9.
The meeting attended Sauli Niinistö, Finland’s President, Iceland’s President Gudni Torlacius Johannesson, Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Sweden’s Prime Minister Stephan Leuven.
As Putin stated
We offer all member countries of this organization, as well as other states, cooperation in the Arctic.
Moreover, in 2021 Russia aims to prepare and adopt a new strategy in favour of the development of the Russian Arctic until 2035. In the meantime, the Russian President supported that particular attention will be paid to the development of transport and supporting infrastructure.
Among Russia’s infrastructure projects is the construction of the Northern Latitudinal Railway which will allow effective development of the natural resources of the Polar Urals, Yamal and the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The work on the NSR will continue to ensure it operates smoothly all year.
In addition, the President aims to increase the volume of freight traffic along the Northern Sea Route – up to 80 million tonnes by 2025.
10–15 years ago this figure seemed completely unattainable. Now it is a realistic, calculated and substantive task. At the end of last year, the volume of traffic on the Northern Sea Route has already reached 20 million tons. And this is three times – I want to emphasize this – three times higher than the Soviet record set in 1987.
… president Putin commented.
In the meeting he also noted that by 2035, Russia’s Arctic icebreaker fleet will be embodied with at least 13 heavy linear icebreakers, including nine nuclear ones.
Concluding, according to Reuters, during the meeting President Putin asked the government to draw up plans for tax relief that would promote the development of the Arctic region.