Belarus plans to acquire its infrastructure for maritime transportation in Russia within the next two to three years, Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Dmitry Krutoi said in an interview with the ONT TV channel, according to BelTA.
Dmitry Krutoi praised active work with Russia in terms of solving logistical issues and expanding access to port infrastructure for cargo transshipment. “These are the Baltic ports as our basic route. The most important direction is Murmansk - Northern Sea Route. We are considering, among other things, the possibility of participating in the program of building a nuclear-powered fleet, which will ensure appropriate navigation in difficult weather conditions,” the diplomat said.
According to him, at the Union State Supreme State Council summit in St. Petersburg on 29 January, Russian partners invited Belarus for cooperation with the United Shipbuilding Corporation, which is the largest shipbuilding company in Russia.
As for the sea transportation routes, apart from the two directions mentioned above, the ports in the Far East also need to be taken into account. The fourth route is towards the south of Russia. “This is the North-South [transportation corridor]. This is Astrakhan, where we have recently paid a visit to,” the ambassador said.
According to Dmitry Krutoi, at the moment Belarus uses 20 Russian ports for cargo transshipment, but there are talks about the implementation of a much larger task. “We have excellent prospects not only in terms of transshipment of our cargoes, but also in terms of entering these projects with an investment portfolio: when we have our own fleet, our own ships, we will not depend on the infrastructure of unfriendly countries. We will be the owners of the entire infrastructure and will be able to regulate the logistics costs on our own. I think this task will be solved within the next two or three years,” the diplomat said.