Russia claims large parts of the Northern Corridor, while the United States is concerned.

Russia is renovating facilities and building ports along the northern coast to control the increasingly ice-free route. The United States warns that the country will get help from China. Russia is also bolstering its military installations in the region, says defense expert Dick Zandi.

“Russia understands that this route can be a moneymaker,” says Russian correspondent Joost Bosman. If the ice melts there in the summer, as it increasingly does, the route could cut the distance between Europe and Asia in half. “So Russia is claiming large parts of this route and believes that shipping should pay to use it.”

Unlike most Western shipping companies, Chinese ships are already using the route, says Bosman. “They’re looking at it long-term.” China is also investing in infrastructure that ships need along the way, such as fuel supplies.

Growing cooperation between Moscow and Beijing

The Pentagon warned of exactly this on Tuesday. “We’ve seen increased cooperation between China and Russia in the Arctic on the commercial front, where China is a major supplier of Russian energy extraction,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said.

Icebreakers are still necessary to navigate the route, says Dick Zandi, a defense expert at the Clingendael Institute. As a result, sailing along the Russian coast is now relatively expensive and commercially uninteresting. Not only do you have to pay the Russians, but the insurance on the ships is also much higher because the risks are higher.

Ice free in 2025

If the entire Arctic becomes ice-free in the summer around 2050, that could change the situation, the defense expert says. “Then you no longer have to sail through Russian territorial waters, but through international waters,” he adds. That’s not a problem yet.

In any case, the region will be an important geostrategic location in the coming years and decades, Zandi says. “The Russians are not only hoping to make an economic profit from this, but they are also strengthening their military presence.”

Shortest distance between the United States and Russia

In addition, the distance between the United States and Russia is the shortest over the Arctic, making control of the region even more sensitive. For example, according to Zandi, Russia claims underwater mountain ranges, which Moscow considers an extension of its exclusive economic zone. On this basis, they can block the United States from reaching there.