Sovcomflot chief executive Sergey Frank has been appointed to head a key committee of the newly established Northern Sea Route (NSR) Public Council, which held its first meeting this week.
Frank is stepping up to head the Organisational Committee of the new council.
Baltic meeting
Representatives from companies and legislative bodies working in the Russian Arctic region met on 6 June onboard the nuclear-powered ice-breaker Arktika that is under construction at Baltic Shipyard.
Aside from Frank, several senior shipping company personnel attended including MOL managing executive officer for its energy transport business unit Kenta Matsuzaka, Rosatom director general Alexei Likhachev, the director general of Rosatom subsidiary FSUE Atomflot Mustafa Kashka and Baltic Shipyard director general Alexei Kadilov
During the meeting, Likhachev said the new council, which was set up at the initiative of Rosatom in its state-appointed role as infrastructure provider to the NSR, would act as “an essential decision-making body for NSR development”.
During the day, Arktika also hosted a signing ceremony between FSUE Atomflot and Maersk Line. The Danish shipowner trialled the NSR with a vessel last year.
The meeting was held as the large St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 kicked off.
The next meeting of the new NSR council will be held at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in September.
The Northern Sea Route Public Council aims at offering a platform for open expert discussion and providing the best solutions for NSR development with regard to the best international practices.
