Climate change and conflict are conspiring to open up the Arctic to Asian commercial shipping, with China, South Korea and India all eyeing the icy short cut to Europe.
Last Saturday, Chinese shipping company Sea Legend launched the first scheduled weekly container service across the top of the world, marking the realisation of Beijing’s long-held ambition to build a “Polar Silk Road”.
It will not sail alone for long, however. This Sunday, South Korea’s PanStar Group plans to send its own pilot vessel from Busan through Russia’s Northern Sea Route (NSR) towards ports in the UK, the Netherlands and Poland.
India is also preparing to dispatch its first cargo ship along the same corridor next year.
“In 2027, we are planning to have the first pilot vessel running through the Northern Sea Route. We are seeing huge possibilities,” S. Venkatesapathy, a joint secretary in India’s shipping ministry, reportedly told the Arctic-Regions Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia, on August 13.
Two crises are pushing Asian shippers north. The first is climate change: warming sea temperatures mean that the Arctic ice pack is no longer impassable in summer, opening a navigable window running roughly from July to October.