A meeting of the commission of the State Council of the Russian Federation on the Northern Sea Route and the Arctic was held in Moscow today under the chairmanship of Andrey Chibis, Governor of the Murmansk Region. The participants discussed proposals for finalizing the updated version of the strategy for the development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and ensuring national security for the period up to 2035. The issue of developing a financial and economic model of the Northern Sea Route and the Transarctic Transport Corridor was also considered. These topics are being worked out as part of the execution of the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, given following the results of the International Arctic Forum.
The draft updated strategy, developed taking into account the proposals of the scientific and expert community, was submitted for discussion by the commission. As Andrey Chibis, Chairman of the commission and Governor of the Murmansk Region, emphasized in his speech, it is important that the key strategic document on the development of the Arctic meets current challenges, primarily economic and geopolitical, and reflects the real state of affairs, taking into account foreign policy changes. The document should be designed not for 10 years, but for 25 years, which is dictated by the peculiarities of the infrastructural development of the macroregion.
"We are discussing how the Russian Arctic will develop in the near future – at least until 2050. The strategy should be prepared in detail, with a set of approaches to solving a wide range of issues, and a comprehensive project for the development of the Arctic and the Transarctic transport corridor should become a tool for implementing the updated strategy. This instruction was formulated by the President. I would like to emphasize that these initiatives were developed at the site of our State Council commission, and we continue our systematic work. The updated version of the strategy is the basis, which will be finalized taking into account the proposals of the members of the commission and its expert council. Our common task is to ensure the elaboration and consideration of proposals, as well as coordination of the strategy with the instructions of the President, namely, the inclusion in the document of issues related to the development of the Transarctic transport Corridor, and in particular, the Northern Sea Route. The development of the Arctic and the TTC are inextricably linked, and our task is to consider them together as a single whole," the governor noted.
Alexey Chekunkov, Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, also stressed that the logic of managing the Arctic zone is based on a systematic approach and is based on key priorities reflecting Russia's long-term interests in this macroregion.
"These are the rational development of the resource base and deep processing in compliance with environmental standards, the accelerated development of the NSR as an international transport corridor of global importance, the renovation of key supporting settlements, the protection of the ancestral habitat and traditional way of life of the indigenous and small–numbered peoples of the North, environmental safety and adaptation to climate change," the head of the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia listed.
Sergey Vakhrukov, Head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for National Maritime Policy, noted the need to include the potential of the entire country in the development of the Arctic zone as a priority macroregion of the Russian Federation.
"The new strategy should be based, first of all, on the basic infrastructure project – the Transarctic Transport Corridor. And it goes beyond the Arctic, which is fundamentally important. These are St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and Vladivostok. In fact, the development of the Arctic is a symbiosis. It is important to reflect how other regions can participate in this process. In addition, the new document should emphasize the importance of military, economic and energy security. Our priority is also to advance Arctic science, fundamental and applied research in many areas, actively involving science from the mainland," he commented.
With regard to the formation of an effective financial, economic and optimal organizational model of the Transarctic Transport Corridor, an important aspect has been fixed: in order to ensure the steady growth of the TTK freight traffic in the coming decades, it is extremely important to expand exploration and launch new mining projects in the territory of the AZRF, the logistics of which will involve the TTK infrastructure.
In conclusion, the Governor of the Murmansk Region and Chairman of the commission, Andrey Chibis, thanked the participants for their involvement, in-depth study of the draft updated strategy and valuable comments given during the meeting.
"We will definitely develop the Arctic and the TTC — this is a matter of our country's security. This is a global, complex, and multidimensional task. Taking into account what has been outlined today, we will continue to work on updating the strategy in terms of tools and mechanisms. And with this position, we will continue to move on various platforms, including reaching out to the country's leadership," the head of the region noted.
/ Ministry of Information Policy of the Murmansk Region /