MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - Russia will never agree to give up its priority in control of the Northern Sea Route, Russian Navy Chief Navigator Rear Adm. Eduard Luik said.
"The conclusion here is clear: Russia's control of the Northern Sea Route is necessary due to the principles of expediency, logic, effectiveness and security," Luik said in an interview with the Russian Defense Ministry's newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda.
"Our country will never give up its priority in using and administering the Northern Sea Route that was acquired over centuries," he said.
"Russia's actions aimed at regulating shipping along the Northern Sea Route should be viewed as actions meant to protect the marine environment and ensure international environmental safety," Luik said.
"At present, certain states, above all the United States, have an extremely negative reaction to the establishment of rules on the international use of the Northern Sea Route by our country," he said.
"The Northern Sea Route is an advantageous transport corridor that stretches in close proximity to northern Russian territories. This allows us to say that foreign vessels will in any case be unable to cover the entire Northern Sea Route without asking for our country's consent to pass through our sovereign waters," Luik said.
"A non-Arctic state cannot operate in the region without an Arctic littoral state's consent to provide its territory for the mooring of foreign ships, provide them with means of communication, carry out rescue operations in case of natural disasters, implement environmental protection measures, if necessary, and perform other actions required for the safe use of the Northern Sea Route," he said.
In December 2019, Russian General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov described the Northern Sea Route as "a historical national transit route" and noted that Russia was against the presence of foreign warships on the Northern Sea Route.
In May 2021, Russian Northern Fleet Commander Alexander Moiseyev rejected the idea of international administration of the Northern Sea Route. "There is currently quite an intense discussion about the freedom of navigation on the Northern Sea Route and the internationalization of control over it. The position of the Russian Federation on the matter has been repeatedly expressed by our country's leaders, including top defense officials: Russia insists on the special use of this communication," Moiseyev said.
The length of the Northern Sea Route's waterways from Kara Gates to Providence Bay is more than 5,600 kilometers, while the length of adjacent navigable river routes is around 37,000 kilometers.