{"id":34536,"date":"2022-11-25T06:09:47","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T00:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=34536"},"modified":"2025-04-20T14:44:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T09:14:39","slug":"putin-touts-russias-arctic-power-with-launch-of-nuclear-icebreakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/putin-touts-russias-arctic-power-with-launch-of-nuclear-icebreakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Touts Russia\u2019s \u2018Arctic Power\u2019 With Launch of Nuclear Icebreakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>India\u2019s involvement in Arctic<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why In News:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Russian President virtually presided over the launch and flag raising ceremony of two nuclear-powered icebreakers.<\/li>\n<li>He said such icebreakers were of strategic importance as climate change opens up the Arctic giving access to new route and resources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>India\u2019s involvement in Arctic<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Initial Phase<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s engagement with the Arctic dates back to 1920 with the\u00a0<u>signing of the Svalbard Treaty in Paris<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>India is one of the very few countries to set up a\u00a0<u>permanent station in the Arctic for the purposes of scientific research<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>It launched its first scientific expedition to Arctic in the first week of August, 2007.\n<ul>\n<li>Subsequently, India has been sending scientific teams every summer and winter for carrying out studies in the Arctic.<\/li>\n<li>Indian studies are primarily focused in the fields of glaciology, hydrochemistry, microbiology, and atmospheric sciences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Subsequent involvement<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Himadri research station<\/strong>, located in Ny Alesund, Svalbard in Norway, was started in July 2008.<\/li>\n<li>In 2014, India deployed\u00a0<strong>IndArc,<\/strong>\u00a0a multisensory observatory in Kongsfjorden.<\/li>\n<li>In 2016, India\u2019s northernmost atmospheric laboratory was established at Gruvebadet.\n<ul>\n<li>It was established to study clouds, precipitation, long-range pollutants, and other background atmospheric parameters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India is an observer in the Arctic Council<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>India is\u00a0<u>Observer to the Arctic Council<\/u>\u00a0since 2013. Its membership as an observer was renewed in 2019 for another five years.\n<ul>\n<li>The Council is the leading intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation on common Arctic<\/li>\n<li>Established by the\u00a0<u>eight Arctic States<\/u>\u00a0\u2014 the countries whose territories fall in the Arctic region \u2014 through the\u00a0<strong>Ottawa Declaration of 1996.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Member Nations of the Council<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; Canada, Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden and United States.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Arctic Policy launched<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In March 2022, the Indian government unveiled an Arctic policy.<\/li>\n<li>It envisages India\u2019s engagement in the Arctic region for climate research, environmental monitoring, maritime cooperation and energy security.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<u>National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research<\/u>\u00a0(under the Ministry of Earth Sciences) will serve as the nodal agency in implementing the Arctic Policy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>President Putin presided over the flag-raising ceremony and dock launch for two nuclear-powered icebreakers that will ensure year-round navigation in the Western Arctic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Key highlights:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The 173.3-metre\u00a0<strong>Yakutia<\/strong>, with a displacement of up to 33,540 tonnes, was launched into water. It can smash through ice of up to three metres. It will join service by end-2024.<\/li>\n<li>The flag was raised on another vessel\u00a0<strong>Ural<\/strong>. It is expected to become operational in December.<\/li>\n<li>Two other icebreakers in the same series,\u00a0<u>the Arktika and the Sibir<\/u>, are already in service and another, the Chukotka, is scheduled for 2026.<\/li>\n<li>Super-powerful nuclear icebreaker known as Rossiya, with a displacement of up to 71,380 tonnes, would be completed by 2027. It will be able to break through ice four metres thick.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Significance for Russia<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Strengthen Russia&#8217;s status as a great Arctic power<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Both icebreakers are part of our large-scale, systematic work to re-equip and replenish the Russian icebreaker fleet.<\/li>\n<li>This will strengthen Russia&#8217;s status as a great Arctic power.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Strategic significance of Arctic<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Arctic is taking on greater strategic significance due to climate change, as a shrinking ice cap opens up new sea lanes.<\/li>\n<li>There has been a race among Arctic states and near-arctic states to augment their capabilities in a bid to be ready to capitalize on the melting Arctic.\n<ul>\n<li>Eg., NATO has been conducting regular exercises in the region. China, which calls itself near-Arctic state, has also announced ambitious plan for polar silk route to connect to Europe.<\/li>\n<li>Unlike Antarctica, the Arctic is not a global common.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Vast oil and gas resources lie in Russia&#8217;s Arctic regions, including a liquefied natural gas plant on the Yamal Peninsula.<\/li>\n<li>As the earth further heats up, which is more profound at the poles, the race for the Arctic is set to accelerate. This makes the Arctic the next geopolitical hotspot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>For development of the Arctic<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>These vessels are needed for the study and development of the Arctic, to ensure safe, sustainable navigation in this region, to increase traffic along the Northern Sea Route.<\/li>\n<li>The development of this most important transport corridor will allow Russia to more fully unlock its export potential and establish efficient logistics routes, including to Southeast Asia.\n<ul>\n<li>This route, often called as\u00a0<strong>Northern Sea Route,<\/strong>\u00a0cuts down time to reach Asia by up to two weeks compared to the current route via the Suez Canal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nuclear icebreaker has an onboard nuclear power plant that produces power for vessel&#8217;s propulsion system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}