The 294-meter Flying Fish 1 traveled from St. Petersburg to Shanghai in just over three weeks, cutting two weeks off the traditional route via the Suez Canal.
This marks a major milestone for Arctic shipping, with nearly 20 transits expected this year, connecting Russian and Chinese ports through the Northern Sea Route.
The ship, operated by EZ Safetrans Logistics, maintained a steady speed without icebreaker assistance, highlighting how much Arctic conditions have changed.
This news may seem mundane but actually it's pretty historic. Russia and China now have a huge logistical and competitive economic advantage. This transit corridor is only going to grow in throughput volume in coming years. And most importantly it cannot be (easily) blocked by the Western imperialists like the southern straits and canals can.
Ya i wouldnt be so sure it cant be blocked. The US is turning Alaska into a fortress for exactly this reason. War in the arctic is likely within 10 years maybe less.
It can be blocked but only by force and the only countries that can do this are the US itself, the baltics, the scandinavian countries, occupied Korea or Japan, neither of which could attack Russia/China without a high likelyhood of getting nuked in return. Meanwhile, the Suez can be closed and there is nothing Russia or China could do (other than going around or making more trains).
The way things are going these days i think there will be much more... creative, solutions. Just off the top of my head.
Privateering coming back in the arctic, and pacific.
Using environmental concerns to pass a UN resolution putting major restrictions on what can be shipped through it.
"Accidentally" crashing a nuclear powered sub and having its reactor melt down up there so a choke point is unusable forcing ships to go through NATO waters to bypass radiation.
Doing "military exercises" in the Bering Strait constantly.
False claims of Russian/Chinese boats entering US Alaskan waters constantly, and disputing the maritime boundaries constantly changing where they claim the line is to confuse captains. Firing warning shots at any ships that cross the line that they move every morning.
Plus this doesnt even take into account that the US is working to create a maritime exclusion zone around Chinas entire coast.
This will work for now, but the end goal needs to be a huge railway project connecting Russia and China over land deep within their territory where its safe from any attack. High speed cargo trains running from the Chinese coast up into Russia all the way to Moscow would be an economic game changer.
Anti-ship missiles, cruise missiles, drones and many other solutions would make it not sustainable for long enough to hurt these countries, specially if Russia nuked whoever gave support to such privateers as their new nuclear doctrine (that they presented in the last 48 hours) would likely require they answer like that.
That's why veto power exists, and if Russia lost their veto power then Russia would not follow anything comming out of there and the UN itself would likely go the way of the League of Nations.
Two can play that game. Although I don't think there are any chokepoints for that anyway.
If civilian ships got hit by the "exercises" that would be an act of war because to the victim that is just a direct attack on them.
That's the same as invading and taking Russian land and would likely be considered an act of war and nukes might fly. And there is also many ways to avoid crossing into the wrong borders anyway so it shouldn't be a problem.
Again, the US can circle China as much as they want but they can't fully block them without attacking China/Russia which would be considered an act of war.
It would be good but those lines are still attackable by drones and missiles, that's why there is no way for the US to block them without nukes flying being a very high likelyhood.
I just want to say i really appreciate the quality of this discussion and i think very good arguments have been made by both sides, many of which also reflect my thoughts on this matter.
I this this is the essential point here. This is the crucial difference between the old sea routes, where other countries control passage, and this one. Blocking the former would require much less escalation.
Other factors to mention are Russia's growing superiority in the arctic (US has nothing to rival Russia's modern nuclear icebreakers), and the capability of shore based hypersonic missiles to interdict a conventional naval presence. The US really only has two options here which is submarines or air sorties from Alaska, both of which involve serious risk of starting a nuclear war...and that's a threshold I'm not sure the US is willing to cross yet.