NSR. Russia hosted the first meeting of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) Cooperation Sub-Commission of the Russia-China Commission for the Preparation of Regular Meetings between the Heads of Government. “Although we are holding the first meeting of the Sub-Commission, we have already put on paper a number of navigation safety agreements between our countries. We also deal with other important issues in a fully collaborative manner,” said Alexey Likhachev, Head of Rosatom. The primary scope of the Sub-Commission’s activities comprises navigation safety, growth of cargo traffic on the NSR, development of logistics routes, and exchange of information on ice conditions. This year, Chinese shipping companies have almost doubled the number of voyages on the NSR. In June, Rosatom and Chinese companies signed a letter of intent to set up a shipbuilding joint venture and establish a year-round container line linking Russian and Chinese ports through the Northern Sea Route. The NSR is the shortest shipping lane between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region.