Northeast Passage Open for a Cargo Ships | Arctic Portal

Two German multipurpose heavy-lift vessels, Beluga Fraternity and Beluga Foresight, has managed to complete the first transit of the Northeast Passage by non-Russian commercial vessels. The carco vessels were assested by a nuclear-powered Russian Atomflot ice breaker "50 let Pobedy" through the East Siberian Sea and the Sannikov Strait into the Laptev Sea from were the vessels reached their Siberian destination of Novyy Port on Monday.

The Northeast passage is ice-free only few weeks each summer and thus still unlikely that regular commercial shippin can take place in near future. The possibility of future shipping is, however, worth noticing since the Arctic Northeast passage will shorten the route between Asia and Europe approximately 5000km.