On Sept. 20 China will send the Istanbul Bridge container ship on an 18-day trip with an icebreaker escort from Ningbo-Zhoushan port to Felixstowe in the U.K. The new route is significantly faster than traditional voyages, which take about 40 days via the Suez Canal, 50 days via the Cape of Good Hope, and around 25 days via Eurasian railways.
“The Arctic is the first region where climate change is changing the geopolitical map,” Malte Humpert of the Arctic Institute told Politico, adding that the region is “changing the geopolitical dynamics because of resources and access to shipping routes.”
