Russia Reopens Soviet-Era Arctic Naval Base To “Control” New Shipping Route
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The Russian military has sent 10 warships to a previously abandoned naval base off its Arctic Coast, in an apparent bid to protect the new northern shipping route to Asia, as well as to secure the region’s vast energy resources, according to a Reuters report on Monday.
The Russian military has sent 10 warships to a previously abandoned naval base off its Arctic Coast, in an apparent bid to protect the new northern shipping route to Asia, as well as to secure the region’s vast energy resources, according to a Reuters report on Monday.
The fleet is led by Russia’s most powerful battleship, the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, and is believed to have already covered 2,000 nautical miles from the port of Severomorsk to a former Soviet naval base on the Novosibirsk Islands – where the Russians can “effectively control” its section of the Arctic Ocean, said President Vladimir Putin.
The Novosibirsk Islands base was last utilised nearly two decades ago; but Putin said that the base would be restored in order to “make it possible for the emergency services, hydrologists and climate specialists to work together to ensure the security and effective work of the Northern Sea Route.”
[quote]“Our troops left there in 1993, but today it is a very important location in the Arctic Ocean, a new stage in the development of the Northern Sea Route,” Putin noted.[/quote]“The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation will fully implement the task of permanent military presence in the Arctic to secure the legal access of the country to resources and spaces of this region. This will be a constant presence,” added the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Viktor Chirkov, as cited by Russia Today.
The melting ice in the Arctic region has seen a new commercial shipping route opening in the north from Asia to Europe. Last month, a Chinese cargo ship set out from Shanghai on the nation’s first commercial voyage across the newly formed Northern Sea Route, while analysts have predicted that China could ship as much as $700 billion worth of cargo across this passage by 2020 – with travel distance expected to be cut by nearly half compared to the traditional route through the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal.
Additionally, the Arctic is also home to vast amounts of natural resources. A U.S. Geological Survey estimate from 2008 suggest that 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of undiscovered natural gas reserves are located in the Arctic Circle.
Unsurprisingly, Russia has moved quickly to carve out its share. Last month, Russia submitted a claim to the United Nations to extend its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone in the North by another 150 miles or 1.2 million square kilometres. Moscow argues that it has scientific evidence proving beyond doubt that seabed it claims is continuation of its continental shelf.
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The Russian Defence Ministry has said that it also plans to establish naval outposts in Novaya Zemlya and the Franz-Josef Land archipelagos in the Arctic Ocean as early as next year.
[quote]“We have come, or rather permanently returned, to where we belong, because it is originally Russian land,” said Army General Arkady Bakhin, Russia’s First Defense Minister.[/quote]“We must re-establish Arctic aviation and infrastructure, both on the mainland and the islands,” he added.
