ARKHANGELSK, August 13. /TASS/. China and India are ready to partner with Russia in building a merchant icebreaker fleet to facilitate maritime transit through Russia's Arctic zone, Igor Levitin, Presidential Aide, Special Representative for International Transport Cooperation, announced.

"The situation with the merchant icebreaker fleet is more complicated <…> I believe we need to leverage our partners' capabilities here. China and India are proposing to partner in building such a fleet, with subsequent production localization in Russia," Levitin said at a joint meeting of the State Council Commissions on International Cooperation and Export and on Industry, held during the Arctic-Regions forum.

Earlier, Levitin reported that the routes of the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor (TTC) and the North-South Corridor would be combined for unified multimodal transportation, including goods from friendly countries. Efforts are currently underway to establish joint ventures with foreign businesses.

As the presidential aide specified during the State Council meeting, Russia requires foreign partners for this project because the country is not yet prepared for such a massive volume of shipbuilding. Furthermore, Russia has accumulated more expertise in vessels for oil and liquefied gas exports than in container shipping.

The 4th Arctic-Regions Forum is taking place August 13-14 in Arkhangelsk. TASS is the general media partner.