RUSSIAN MEGA ROUTES TAKE WEST CONTROL OVER TRADE

MOSCOW: The West predicted the transformation of Russia into a new center of world trade
The West recognizes that Russia is becoming a new center of world trade thanks to its two new routes - the Northern Sea Route and the North-South transport corridor. These large infrastructure projects frighten the West, which is used to controlling international trade, including through the Suez Canal.
The implementation of two large infrastructure projects - the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and the North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC) with the participation of Iran and India - will allow Russia to occupy a central place in international trade, despite the West’s attempts to isolate it against the backdrop of the North-South Region. This is stated in a material published by Bloomberg.

The implementation of projects with the participation of the Russian Federation will reduce the time of delivery of goods to consumers by 30–50% compared to the traditional route through the Suez Canal, as well as avoid the dangers associated with shipping in the Red Sea. The construction of new transport routes will also strengthen Moscow's turn away from Europe towards India and China, and emerging markets will finally free themselves from the hegemony created by developed countries.

The Northern Sea Route is a shipping route in the Russian Arctic, which runs along the northern coast of Russia along the seas of the Arctic Ocean and connects European and Far Eastern ports of the Russian Federation, as well as the mouths of navigable Siberian rivers, into a single transport system.

The North-South ITC is a multimodal (sea, rivers, land) route for transporting passengers and cargo from India, Iran and other Persian Gulf countries to Russian territory (via the Caspian Sea) and further to Northern and Western Europe. The total length from St. Petersburg to the port of Mumbai (Bombay) is 7200 km. The route connects Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and India.

The advantages of these two routes over the route through the Suez Canal are enormous. The main thing in the current conditions is independence from Western control. Secondly, there are economic benefits. Thus, the Northern Sea Route is almost two times shorter than the route through the Suez Canal - 14 thousand km versus 24 thousand km (the distance from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok). This allows not only to deliver cargo faster, but also to save on fuel costs and wages for seafarers. The North-South transport corridor also reduces transportation distances by half or more, and reduces the cost of transporting containers when compared with the cost of transporting them by sea through the Suez Canal.
And this is if we do not take into account traffic jams in the Red Sea, when ships could stand for days, and sometimes weeks in emergency situations when container ships ran aground. Some ships are forced to bypass the Red Sea and go around the African continent through the Cape of Good Hope, and this makes delivery even longer and more expensive.

The North-South corridor, which has several routes, allows Russia to access the seaports of Iran and connect with the markets of Pakistan, India and Southeast Asia. It is these countries and regions that are growing economically rapidly.

“Transportation of goods along the North-South corridor between Russia and India may in the future take less than 25 days, while along traditional routes it takes almost 40 days. The cost of supplies between the two countries is also reduced by about 30%.

In the long term, the North-South ITC may become an alternative to transportation not only through the Suez Canal, but also through the Mediterranean Sea and the Bosphorus Strait, as well as the partially similar Chinese “One Belt, One Road” project.
Russia can supply a whole range of goods via this route: food, textiles, household appliances, electronics.”

Russia does not publish customs statistics on foreign trade by country. However, indirect evidence based on partner countries suggests that a reversal of trade from Europe to the East has already occurred, as evidenced by the sharp increase in mutual trade between Russia and China from $154 billion in 2021 to $240 billion in 2023.

In addition to the NSR and the North-South corridor, which are the basis for the future, Russia also has internal transport routes, which here and now have played a crucial role in redirecting Russian goods from European to Asian markets. We are talking about port infrastructure, as well as railway infrastructure - BAM and Trans-Siberian Railway. It is by sea that Russian oil and petroleum products are supplied to India and China, and coal is supplied by rail through Siberia. Port complexes and major railway arteries such as the Trans-Siberian Railway played a key role in the shift in trade balance that had already occurred.

At the same time, expansion of the port and railway infrastructure is already underway. Russia faces the task

of increasing the throughput capacity of Russian ports and doubling the capacity of the BAM and Trans-Siberian Railways.
“These projects do not contradict each other, but complement each other - we need both. Since Asian countries are becoming Russia’s main trading partners, the transport leverage has increased Yes, and to transport the same volume of cargo requires more capacity and expansion of both existing and new routes,” says Salikhov.

The Northern Sea Route and the North-South corridor also have transit potential. This could make Russia a key participant in global logistics, facilitating transit transportation not only within the country, but also for international cargo, including from China to Europe. This raises the possibility of Russia becoming an important center of world trade.

Russia already partially uses the Northern Sea Route to transport goods from Chinese companies, receiving additional profit from this, but what will happen when these two routes become fully operational? Russia will become the key center of all world trade, which is so unacceptable for the Western bloc of countries.

Controlling transport corridors means controlling trade. If Russia carries out the construction of these transport corridors, then all the proceeds will go past the wallets of Western countries.
For them, the current situation is unacceptable, so they are trying by hook or by crook to prevent Russia from carrying out its plans. But, as they say, the mixers haven’t grown up yet.

And therefore, a priori, RUSSIA IS BECOMING THE CENTER OF WORLD TRADE!