Alaska's Arctic ambitions IV: annual conference focuses on infrastructure in 2015.

• Author: Salov, Alex
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: International Trade - Conference news

Arctic development continues to garner worldwide attention. Not only is it a subject of great interest to the nations that directly border the region but also to countries far removed from it. In addition to the eight nations that comprise the Arctic Council, twelve non-Arctic nations have applied for and received the status of permanent observers to the Council. Several of these observer nations are playing an increasingly important role in the Alaska economy and are among the state's major trading partners.

China and Singapore

China, for example, in recent years has become an active participant of Arctic development and is a permanent observer to the Council. In July 2014, China signed its first Free Trade Agreement with a European country--Iceland--and is currently one of the major investors in Greenland's mining industry. In August 2013, the Chinese cargo ship Yong Sheng sailed from Dalian to Rotterdam via the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and reached its destination two weeks earlier, covering a distance 22 percent shorter, than it would have using the traditional Suez Canal route. Chinese analysts optimistically predict that during the next decade up to 15 percent of China's international trade may be shipped via the NSR.

Singapore, another market of interest for Alaska, has also become a permanent observer to the Council. Singapore is a major shipping hub, one of the world's largest oil refiners and offshore oil platform builders. It has a vested interest in the development of global shipping and resource extraction industries. If the NSR becomes the major shipping route, Singapore worries that it could lose a share of its business to the new route. This explains why the country is proactively looking at the opportunities that emerge from Arctic development and could possibly seek to establish a foothold along this Northern route through port development and management.

Northern Sea Route

Navigation via the NSR continues to grow. In 2010, only four cargo ships transited through the NSR, while in 2011 there were thirty-four ships, in 2012 there were forty-six, and 2013 saw seventy-one vessels plying the route. The sailing season for the NSR is limited to six months: it starts in June and ends in November. As the ice continues to recede, the sailing season may become longer as time goes by. Most of the ships require an icebreaking escort. Rosatomflot, a Russian company operating a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, currently provides...