Ambassador explained how Belarus will use ports of Murmansk and St. Petersburg

15m tonnes of Belarusian cargo through the ports of St. Petersburg are planned to be transhipped by 2025 – as informed by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia, Dmitry Krutoi, in his talk with the Belarus 1 TV channel

Due to the logistical advantages, the ports of St. Petersburg became the base points for transhipment of Belarusian cargo exports in 2023, and the diplomat commented, “We have actually reached the ceiling of this transhipment upon the availability of the existing infrastructure, primarily the railway one. The numbers are large, and they have increased significantly compared to 2021-2022: last year, 14.1m tonnes of cargo were transhipped through all Russian ports, of which the lion's share – 12.9m – went through the ports of St. Petersburg.”

According to Mr. Krutoi, the investment plans of the Russian Railways and the Belarusian Railway have been agreed. "The first stage envisages the restoration of the passing tracks, which were actually mothballed after the USSR collapse. They need to be restored very quickly now,” the diplomat stressed. “The basic task is to ensure the transhipment of 15m tonnes of Belarusian goods using the ports of St. Petersburg by 2025."

"The task has been set to use the advantages of Murmansk and the Northern Sea Route in order to deliver our goods to China. The shortening of the time and the safety of this logistics route are obvious today. Russians already start to actively use it, and Chinese logistics companies also begin to intensively master it," Mr. Krutoi said.

With this in view, it is important not to miss the moment and to integrate into this process, the diplomat believes. "We have such plans. I think we will finally decide on the Murmansk possibilities in H1 2024,” he stated.