Cooperation Of China And Russian In The Arctic Passage

With the acceleration of the global warming, the temperature of the Arctic has increased sharply. The abundant natural resources in the Arctic and the Arctic Passage that has economic importance and strategic value are taking the attention of the Arctic region and the world. Although China is not the Arctic country, it has been influenced by the Arctic affairs, especially the Arctic Passage. It is necessary to cooperate with the Arctic countries actively, if China wants to exploit the Arctic Passage. Russia is not only the neighbor of China, but the great power in developing the Arctic Passage. While, as the Arctic country, Russia has developed a comprehensive Arctic strategy, and has been to take strict control measures in the development and utilization of the Arctic Passage. When China participate in the development of the Arctic Passage, it will face many obstacles including military restrict, economic barrier and technical shortage. Control activities of Russia enlarge the difficult of the Sino-Russian cooperation. Yet China can not be excluded from the Arctic Passage development, and there is still possibility of the cooperation between China and Russian. Active cooperation in the development of the Arctic Passage will bring a win-win situation of the two countries.The article synthetically uses the multi-disciplinary theory of Geopolitics, Economics, International Law and Environment Science, and analyses the strategic value of the Arctic Passage with the method of the integration of qualitative and quantitative analysis. The first chapter introduces the location and resources of the Arctic region and the Arctic Passage, then presents the geopolitics that include economic significance and strategic value and the strategic position covering the sovereign disputes and military status changes. There is a considerable dispute between the countries of the Arctic about the ownership of the Arctic Passage, which related to the legal provisions of international law on the high seas, territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. Then the military status of the Arctic Passage has changed from military cooperation of the World War Ⅱ to the arms race of the Cold War. Now the Arctic Passage is still the main place of the nuclear submarine of the Arctic states. The second chapter analyzes the development activities of Russia in the Arctic, and the Russian Arctic strategy that gradually formed in recent years. Based on the Russian Arctic strategy, further analysis is about the practices and constraints of the Arctic strategy implementation. The third chapter analyzes the necessity for China to participate the development of the Arctic Passage. This chapter focuses on China’s exploration activities of the Arctic and the Arctic Passage, and the important economic and strategic value of the Arctic Passage. In the five Arctic scientific expeditions, China has got a lot of first-hand information, which laid a good foundation for future scientific investigation. The Arctic region has rich resources, such as oil, gas, coal and other mineral and fishery resources. Under the analysis above all, the study also discusses the obstacles and the possibility of the cooperation about China and Russia. At present, there are a lot of obstacles and difficulties about the direct cooperation on the development and utilization of the Arctic Passage between the two countries. The Russian military presence in the Arctic region is the primary aspect of the control of Russia, and the biggest obstacle for China’s participation. In addition to the recovery of the Russian economy is increasingly relying on the Arctic and the Passage. Then the technology of China has little attraction to Russia. In the end, this article looks into the distance of the cooperation prospects of China and Russia, and provides something to think for the future about China’s participation in the development of the Arctic Passage.