Chris Knowles

The Polar Silk Road Chris Knowles

Ever since the 13th century, the Silk Road from China to Europe was used to carry everything from silk and pasta to exotic spices from the Far East to Western Europe. It was the route by which both Orientals and Europeans were enriched. In the early 2010s, China devised an agenda by which they would restore the Silk Road under the "One Belt, One Road" policy. The One Belt carried goods across China, the Indian subcontinent, and Turkey to Istanbul and the starting point of the several routes of the historic Orient Express. The One Road was the maritime route to Western Europe by way of the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca, the Suez Canal, and the Mediterranean. In 2018, China released its Arctic Policy white paper which included the inclusion of the Polar Silk Road, the Chinese trade route through the Northeast Passage from the Bering Strait to the Barents Sea. The new route would cut the trip from China to the markets in Western Europe by one-third. The Chinese chose Greenland as the terminus and transshipment hub for trade with the West. When China adopted an aggressive agenda at exploiting the Polar Silk Road to enhance its trade with the West, the United States and Russia stepped in to ensure that those initiatives were limited to commercial exploits and did not include military adventurism. After consultation with the President of the United States, Russia was entrusted with the responsibility to ensure that the Polar Silk Road would be used for solely commercial purposes. The Chinese did not necessarily agree with or abide by these values or restrictions.