Photo: A friendly handshake of Vladimir Kharlov, Vice-President of the NSR Association, and Arni Thor Sigurdsson, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the republic of Iceland to the Russian Federation, at the celebration of a birthday of Arthur Chilingarov, President of the NSR Association, the legendary polar explorer.

Recently, the NSRA Council held a Meeting during which it has considered the matters related to the general work until the end of 2021 and for the next year when the NSR will celebrate its anniversary.

A ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 90th Anniversary of the Northern Sea Route would be held in the Column Hall of the House of Unions, Moscow, in the first week of December 2022 under the Chairmanship of Arthur Chiilngarov, President of the NSR Association, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Cooperation in the Arctic and the Antarctic. We would like to remind that the heroic expeditions of the Soviet seamen had started from my hometown of Arkhangelsk in 1932. They were exploring the opportunities for increasing the commercial navigation through the Northern Sea Route. These expeditions brought immortal glory to the Krasin and Chelyuskin icebreakers' actions and contributed greatly to the development of the USSR Arctic Studies.  The names of the Soviet sailors, researchers, polar explorers and airmen have forever been inscribed in the history of the Arctic and Antarctic discoveries. The name of our Association's President Arthur Chilingarov has also taken its rightful place in the research expeditions sent by USSR and, later, the Russian Federation to explore the Arctic and Antarctic.

We are grateful to the NSRA Association's partners - Regional Administrations of the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, Nenets Autonomous District, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Chukotka, Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Atomflot", PJSC "Sovcomflot", JSC "Northern Shipping Company", FESCO and ports of the cities of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Dudinka and Anadyr for their support and active participation in this work carried out along with us.

H. E. Mr. Arni Thor Sigurdsson will give an interview to the Arctic Herald magazine and to the NSR Association on November 02, 2021, in which he will speak about the Republic of Iceland's vision of the Arctic international cooperation.

It is planned to get similar interviews in year 2022 from H. E. Mr. Antti Helantera, Ambassador of the Republic of Finland, and from H. E. Mr. Rune Resaland, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway. These countries are our good Arctic neighbours with whom we live on the same ice, if I may say so. In may 2023 Russia will hand over to Norway the chairmanship of the Arctic Council. We would be glad to see photo and video materials of the above interviews being used during the Celebration of the 90th Anniversary of the Northern Sea Route because Iceland, Norway and Finland expressed true heroism and courage while exploring new opportunities for maritime navigation through the NSR.

The NSR Council, its President Arthur Chilingarov and all 36 of our partners cannot imagine the cooperation in the Arctic and the commercial maritime navigation through the NSR without the active cooperation between all regions of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation and the Big Arctic-8 member States. During the year 2020 and this year, the NSRA held four international online conferences, three online working meetings between the NSRA partners and an Attache of the US Embassy in Moscow and an Attache of the US Consulate General in Vladivostok (both of them are dealing with coastal security and Arctic cooperation within the NSR). We are grateful to the MFA of Russia and Mr. Nikolay Korchunov, Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Marine Rescue Service of the Russian Federation and to Mr. Viktor Chernov in person, to the Administration of the NSR and to Mr. Nikolay Monko, Head of the Administration, for the assistance rendered to our French partner - PONANT Cruise Company and its President Jean Emmanuel Sauvee. In spite of the pandemic our French friends could conduct the first cruise from Anadyr, Chukotka, to the Kazakov port in Kamchatka with 30 Arctic cruise passengers. This has happened in last year's September onboard of the Borreal ice-class vessel. This work has been continued this year and we will inform you about it later.

We would like to remind that Russia is the Chair of the Arctic Council from May 2021 and will remain the Chair for two years.

Additionally, we would like to remind that the NSRA will continue to conduct visiting sessions. In this year's March we had to postpone the visiting session to JSC "Baltic Shipyard", Saint-Petersburg, in spite of the fact that we strongly wished that the NSRA's partners could personally see the construction of Siberia, Arctic and other icebreakers. These are the very icebreakers that are the pride and fame of our icebreakers fleet, without which it would be impossible to develop the navigation  through the NSR and to accompany the cargos of our Russian and foreign partners.

In March 2022 we are planning to hold a visiting session on Taymyr and we are grateful to Mr. Evgeniy Vladimirovich Vershinin, NSRA partner and the Head of the Taymyr municipal district for the opportunity to see the Dudinka port, which is the part of the NSR, and the start of the grand energy-related project "Vostok-Oil". We remind the NSRA's partners, observers and friends, who would like to participate in the visiting session, of the border regime on the Taymyr and on the necessity of submission of the necessary documentation in 45 days prior to the event. First of all, this rules concerns foreign participants and we remind that these rules shall be observed. We also remind that we do not cover expenses related to transportation and accommodation; however we would be happy to welcome our Russian and Foreign partners at the visiting session. We reserve the right to change the dates and the reasonable charges for the participation due to the pandemic.

In spite of the pandemic and limited opportunities for holding in-person meetings we have started to get accustomed to the work in the videoconference mode. However, our partner Mustafa Kashka from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Atomflot, the leading NSR operator, said the following during the recent NSRA conference: "Indeed we all are a bit tired of the remote work and lack of in-person meetings". It is hard to disagree with him but, as of now, the security measures prevail.

We are grateful to the Association's new partners: JSC "Prospective Technologies", the Naryan-Mar United Squadron, GTK-Vostok, and "Gecon" Centre for joining the NSRA. We express our regret because of the "Sibmedcenter" LLC withdrew from the NSRA; however the fact that they have joined our friends and partners - Association of Polar Explorers - seems logical because they consider matters related to the development of the Arctic medicine deeper and more detailed, while the NSRA's focus is on the development of the transport infrastructure, aviation, maritime navigation security, science, coastal lines, digitalization, ports of the Russian Arctic Zone, shipbuilding, energy, indigenous peoples of the North, regional and international cooperation. 

We remains for us until the end of the year is to hold international conferences on October 26 and November 09. We had to make it two conferences in order to separate the NSRA's members and partners in accordance with their interests. Our work during 2019-2021 showed the necessity of such separations.  Our new members from the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (Khanty-Mansiisk Automous District, the Republic of Karelia, the Republic of Komi and the Magadan Region) are welcome to attend the NSRA's online conferences as well. 

Moreover, we hope to successfully finish the proposed negotiations on joining the NSRA with PAO Novatek, Rosneft, Lukoil, Alliance LLC from Saint-Petersburg, a Japanese company MOL and, if possible, with the Finnish company Arctia Shipping and the Norwegian Tschudi Shipping Company.  

We are happy to welcome our new Russian and Foreign partners and the development of cooperation, first of all - in the business sphere. The NSRA aims to render active support to our business and regions in implementing the 2035 Strategy for the Development of the Russian Arctic Zone, in increasing the turnover flow through the NSR to 80 million tons until 2024 and in the gradual shift to the year-round navigability of the NSR.

And, of course, the traditional mutual congratulations on the occasions of the Christmas and the New Year will complete the year 2021 which had been very successful to us.

Traditionally, the NSRA will send congratulatory messages and gifts. Moreover, the NSRA will send all our partners, observers and friends the next issue of the Arctic Herald magazine issued by our partner.

With best wishes,

Vladimir Kharlov,

NSRA vice -president for the coordination with partners and international cooperation , member of working group on social and economic development  of the Russian Arctic  zone under Federation Council of Federal Assembly.