Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that it is necessary to approve a consolidated development plan for the North Sea Route until 2035, RIA Novosti reports.

'I believe that in order to ensure reliable and safe carriage of goods along this most important transport route, it necessary to approve the consolidated development plan of the North Sea Route until 2035,' Putin said at a meeting on the development of the Arctic.

He asked the government to take into account the task of long-term perspective cargo traffic along the North Sea Route, specifying some particular investment projects and obligations of cargo senders in terms of volumes, as well as nomenclature and the icebreaker fleet required for the implementation of projects.

The North Sea Route (NSR) is more than 3,000 nautical miles (5,556 kilometres) long and is the shortest route between Europe and Asia. Russia is set to implement a 'Development of the North Sea Route' federal project, which involves the creation of infrastructure set to increase cargo traffic to 80 million tonnes by 2024 and 110 million tonnes by 2030, as well as to increase the total capacity of seaports to 110 and 115 million tonnes, respectively.

Photo from https://www.rosatom.ru/