Putin's plan to increase Russian control over the Arctic

SAINT PETERSBURG (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin today presented an ambitious plan to strengthen Russia's control over the Arctic, including the construction of ports and others. infrastructure and the development of the icebreaker fleet.

At a forum in St. Petersburg with the leaders of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, Putin said Russia planned to significantly increase the traffic shipping on the Arctic trails.

He badured that the quantity of products shipped by this route should increase from 20 million tons last year to 80 million tons in 2025.

"It is a realistic, concrete and well-calculated task," said the Russian president, who also said that Russia, the only country with nuclear-capable icebreakers, is seeking to expand the fleet.

Russia currently has four nuclear icebreakers and Putin warned that three more are under construction. By 2035, Russia could have 13 heavy icebreakers, nine of which have nuclear capacity, said the president.

Putin also announced that Russia would expand its ports to both ends of the Arctic Seaway (Murmansk in the Kola peninsula and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Kamchatka peninsula) and invited foreign companies to invest in the reconstruction.

Other ports and infrastructure facilities on this shipping route will also be upgraded, promised Putin.

Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark, and Norway have claimed jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic at a time when ice sheets are melting and new shipping and exploration routes are under way. # 39; open.

Speaking at the same forum, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg stressed the need to respect international law and badured that the Arctic Council was an ideal forum for dialogue. "From time to time, I hear someone say that the Arctic is a matter of political sensitivity," said the Norwegian leader. "This is not how we see things, we know that the Arctic is a region of peace and stability," he added.

Solberg and other forum participants pointed out that it was important that all countries in the Arctic region focus on areas of common interest despite their differences.