China envisages exporting consumer goods aboard container ships to Europe and receiving LNG cargoes via the NSR.
Mr. STEVE JOHNSON (EPA Administrator): NSR is not as significant as it was.
It will help it get Arctic resources to market faster and also, as the NSR becomes increasingly viable, diversify its hydrocarbon-addicted economy.
For China, the main transportation focus is the NSR, which runs along the northern coastline of Siberia from Novaya Zemlya to the Bering Strait.
The passage of the NSR is not a straightforward boon, either.
In August to September last year, China sent its one and only icebreaker Xue Long (Snow Dragon) on a successful two-way test run of the NSR.
The NSR cuts the voyage from Shanghai to Hamburg by 6, 400km (4, 000 miles) compared with the southern journey through the Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal.
According to the Centre for High North Logistics, an Arctic-focused information center based in Kirkenes, Norway, 46 vessels used the NSR in 2012, carrying about 1.26 million tons of cargo.
The NSR's shortcomings are considerable: a short sailing season, the cost of hiring icebreakers, the operational hazards of extreme northern waters and the environmental risks of oil spills, collisions or sinkings.
For example, Murmansk to China's Ningbo port near Shanghai is 13, 000 km via the NSR, compared with 22, 000 km via the Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, Indian Ocean and Strait of Malacca.
Sailing along the coast of Siberia by the north-east passage, or Northern Sea Route (NSR), as Russians and mariners call it, cuts the distance between western Europe and east Asia by roughly a third.
We wish to consult with the Administration on these issues at the earliest opportunity, and we hope no policy initiatives will be presented to the Soviets until the National Security Review, NSR-3, has had full interagency review.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Letter from Sens. Symms and Mack to President Bush
The Arctic's importance has gained extra strategic and economic significance as melting ice in the polar region strengthens the feasibility of nations to use the Northern Sea Route (NSR) across the top of Russia and the Northwest Passage through Canada's Arctic archipelago.
So too is the hope that the North-East Passage above Russia, also known as the Northern Sea Route (NSR), as well as the North-West Passage from the Atlantic over the top of North America, will become navigable for several months each summer.
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