SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China will build a “Polar Silk Road” and actively participate in the development of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, it said in its new “five-year plan” 2021-2025 released on Friday.
The plan said China would “participate in pragmatic cooperation at the North Pole” and “increase its capacity to participate in the protection and use of the South Pole.”
China has been looking at lucrative mineral resources, as well as possible new sea routes in the Arctic regions, as ice caps recede as a result of rising temperatures.
In 2018 he published a white paper highlighting his plans to create new freight routes linking Asia and Europe through the northeast, northwest and central Arctic passage, and that raises concerns about the fragile environment. of the region.
Late last year, China also announced plans to launch a new satellite to track sea routes and monitor changes in sea ice in the Arctic. It plans to launch the satellite in 2022.
Reports by David Stanway; Edited by Shri Navaratnam