China has announced a new shipping route through the Arctic Ocean, which could ease the way for global trade amid the Middle East crisis that has paralysed critical waterways, including the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on the edge of the Red Sea.
Shipping companies have become increasingly interested in alternative trade routes through the Arctic in recent years as conflicts, such as the US war on Iran, restrict vital routes like the Red Sea and the Gulf. One answer may be China’s new “Ice Silk Road”, which begins at Ningbo on China’s east coast, cuts through the Arctic Circle by running along Russia’s Northern Sea Route and then heads south in the North Sea, terminating at Felixstowe in eastern England.
In recent weeks, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the key transit point to the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, has become a
no-go route for many ships as the Iran-backed Houthis target shipping linked to Saudi Arabia. That has disrupted traffic heading to and from the Suez Canal, the vital waterway connecting West Asia to Europe.
