Egypt: Russia marketing its Northern Sea route as alternative to Suez Canal

Posted On 26 March 2021

Number of times this article was read : 138

Russia cheekily pushed the Northern Sea Route on Thursday as an “alternative” to Egypt’s Suez Canal after a huge container ship blocked the busy shipping lane. President Vladimir Putin has long promoted the passage along the country’s Siberian coast as a rival to the Suez Canal, and Russia seized on the Egyptian route’s traffic jam to play it up again. The Japanese-owned, Panama-flagged MV Ever Given got stuck Tuesday during a sandstorm, blocking the waterway that connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and which handles more than 10 percent of global maritime trade.

Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom on Thursday gave three tongue-in-cheek reasons “to consider Northern Sea Route as a viable alternative to the Suez Canal Route”. The first reason, Rosatom said on its English-language Twitter account, was that the Arctic passage provides “way more space to draw peculiar pictures using your giant ships”. Rosatom included a link to a news article that reported that a tracking map showed the giant ship had made the shape of male genitals before becoming stuck. If ships get stuck in the Northern Sea Route, Russia would send ice-breakers to help dislodge them, said the nuclear agency, which is the passage’s official infrastructure operator.

Rosatom also posted an animated image from the “Austin Powers” series depicting its main character stuck in a shuttle car reversing back and forth in a narrow tunnel — photoshopped with the Panama-flagged vessel. “You might get stuck in the Suez Canal for days,” the nuclear agency said. A Dutch salvage firm that has sent experts to help move the Suez ship said Wednesday that recovering it could take days or weeks.

Russia has invested heavily in the development of the Northern Sea Route that allows ships to cut the journey to Asian ports by 15 days compared with the conventional route through the Suez Canal. As the route becomes increasingly free of ice due to climate change, Moscow is planning to use it to export oil and gas to overseas markets. On Thursday, Russia’s weather monitor said the route was “in some years almost completely free of ice” by the end of the summer, having reached a “record low level” of ice cover in 2020.

AFP
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The North Africa Journal is a leading English-language publication focused on North Africa. The Journal covers primarily the Maghreb region and expands its general coverage to the Sahel, Egypt, and beyond, when events in those regions affect the broader North Africa geography. The Journal does not have any affiliation with any institution and has been independent since its founding in 1996. Our position is to always bring our best analysis of events affecting the region, and remain as neutral as humanly possible. Our coverage is not limited to one single topic, but ranges from economic and political affairs, to security, defense, social and environmental issues. We rely on our full staff analysts and editors to bring you best-in-class analysis. We also work with sister company MEA Risk LLC, to leverage the presence on the ground of a solid network of contributors and experts. Information on MEA Risk can be found at www.MEA-Risk.com.

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