BEIJING (Reuters) - China will
encourage ships flying its flag to take the Northwest Passage via the
Arctic Ocean, a route opened up by global warming, to cut travel times
between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a state-run newspaper said on
Wednesday.
China is increasingly active in the polar region,
becoming one of the biggest mining investors in Greenland and agreeing
to a free trade deal with Iceland.
Shorter shipping routes across the Arctic Ocean
would save Chinese companies time and money. For example, the journey
from Shanghai to Hamburg via the Arctic route is 2,800 nautical miles
shorter than going by the Suez Canal.
China's Maritime Safety Administration this month
released a guide offering detailed route guidance from the northern
coast of North America to the northern Pacific, the China Daily said.
"Once this route is commonly used, it will directly
change global maritime transport and have a profound influence on
international trade, the world economy, capital flow and resource
exploitation," ministry spokesman Liu Pengfei was quoted as saying.
Chinese ships will sail through the Northwest Passage "in the future", Liu added, without giving a time frame.
Most of the Northwest Passage lies in waters that Canada claims as its own.
Asked if China considered the passage an
international waterway or Canadian waters, Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China noted Canada considered that the
route crosses its waters, although some countries believed it was open
to international navigation.
In Ottawa, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Stephane
Dion said no automatic right of transit passage existed in the
waterways of the Northwest Passage.
"We welcome navigation that complies with our rules
and regulations. Canada has an unfettered right to regulate internal
waters," Joseph Pickerill said by email.
Maritime experts say shipping companies would most
likely be deterred by the unpredictable nature of Arctic ice, the total
absence of infrastructure in the region, relatively shallow waters, a
lack of modern mapping and increased insurance costs.
The route would also be strategically important to China, another maritime official, Wu Yuxiao, told the China Daily.
Melting sea ice has spurred more commercial traffic,
and China wants to become more active in the Arctic, where it says it
has important interests.
Chinese ships, even merchant vessels, using the Northwest Passage could raise eyebrows in Washington.
In September,
five Chinese Navy ships sailed in international waters in the Bering Sea
off Alaska, in an apparent first for China's military.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Jonathan Oatis)
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