New Russian Maritime Strategy highlights Arctic

-The main priority of the Strategy will be measures on the development of the Arctic territories of Russia, necessary for the country to take the leading positions in the region, Mr. Ivanov says, newspaper Transport of Russia (#5-2009) reports.

The federal strategy is to be completed before the middle of 2009 and then made public at the end of the year, the first deputy PM said. The document is prepared by the Ministry of Defense and supported by the Sea Collegium of the Russian Federation.

Navy priorities

Among the priorities to be pursued will be the establishment a common logistic system by the Ministry of Transport and the Russian Navy. Such enhanced coordination would prepare the ground for a higher level of commercial shipping in the areas considered of high strategic interest for the Navy. Among those areas are the waters along the Kola Peninsula and the Barents Sea.

The document also highlights the need for the establishment of an enhanced control system for the airspace, sea-based and sub-sea situation in the Arctic, as well as the serial construction of a modern Arctic fleet, Transport of Russia writes.

Concerted action

The implementation of the strategy will be managed by the Ministry of Defense, while the Federal Sea Collegium will be responsible for the coordination of activities of all the involved bodies of federal power. The Maritime Strategy will be coordinated with the Federal Transport Development Strategy till 2030 (Ministry of Transport) and the Program of Study and Development of the Russian Continental Shelf till 2030 (Ministry of Economic Development and Trade), the newspaper writes.

In June this year, the Sea Collegium will hold a meeting in Arkhangelsk and study the issues of protection of Russian state interests in the Arctic following the decisions of the Russian Security Council.

Arctic security

As BarentsObserver reported, In September last year the Security Council announced that the Arctic would be the main resource base for Russia in the 21 century and recognized that the key priorities for the Russian Federation in the region are a more active development of the natural resources in the region, development of transport and frontier infrastructure and information and telecommunication environment.

In that meeting the President of Russia adopted the fundamentals of the Russian Policy in the Arctic till 2020.

The Sea Collegium of the Russian Government is a coordinating body which provides the concerted actions of the federal and regional executive authorities and organizations in the fields of sea activity, study and development of the world ocean, Arctic and Antarctic. The head of the Sea Collegium is Sergey Ivanov. The Collegium includes the federal ministers of transport, industry, foreign affairs, natural resources, the heads of federal agencies of fishery, sea and river transport, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy and other official persons.

BarentsObserver Arkhangelsk