China and Russia agree to boost competitiveness of Arctic shipping route

China and Russia have signalled their willingness to boost the competitiveness of the Arctic shipping route, which is set to become more important as traditional routes between Asia and Europe remain vulnerable to disruption. Transport Minister Liu Wei and Alexey Likhachev, the director general of Rosatom – the Russian state nuclear company responsible for managing the Northern Sea Route – pledged in a video meeting on Thursday to strengthen cooperation on the route. Liu’s ministry said he...