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Russia calls on Canada to board Bering tunnel
Intercontinental train route under the strait to go through British Columbia
SHAWN MCCARTHY
From Friday's Globe and Mail
April 20, 2007 at 4:26 AM EST
OTTAWA — Russia's ambassador in Ottawa says a $60-billion (U.S.) proposal to build a rail tunnel under the Bering Strait is no pipedream, and that Canada needs to be part of the megaproject.
Ambassador Georgiy Mamedov said yesterday that the hugely ambitious project had its modern genesis in a high-level U.S.-Russian committee that was charged by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former Russian President Boris Yeltsin to pursue increased transportation links between the two former Cold War rivals.
It was shelved after Russia experienced its financial meltdown in 1998, but Mr. Mamedov said the proponents now have the support of President Vladimir Putin to develop a firm proposal.
The ambassador, who was a senior Foreign Ministry official during the earlier discussions, said he is now optimistic that the Bering Strait tunnel will be built.
"We have the will, we have the money, and we have the capacity," he said.
"But we need Canada aboard" because the intercontinental train route would go through British Columbia.
Proponents of the project held a press briefing in Moscow this week, ahead of a conference next week that will be attended by supporters from Alaska, as well as Russian officials.
Mr. Mamedov said the rail link would provide commercial freight deliveries from Asian markets to North America, and back again.
It could include energy pipelines that would feed Russian oil and/or natural gas into U.S. markets, but the Russians are already committed to build pipelines to China and are constructing liquefied natural gas facilities in the eastern Arctic to ship natural gas to international markets.
At a bilateral meeting last month, Canada and Russia formed a special transportation group to examine various proposals for increased linkages, including air connections between Winnipeg and Krasnoyarsk, and a polar sea route from Murmansk to Churchill, Man.
The ambassador said he expected Mr. Putin and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to touch on the Bering Strait project at the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June.
Canadian officials say they are aware of the proposed megaproject and will study it when Russia produces a more detailed proposal.
But one senior official said yesterday that it is not certain that Mr. Harper will have a bilateral meeting with Mr. Putin at the Group of Eight major industrialized countries, and that it is "premature to speculate" on the topics they will cover if they do meet.
The Bering tunnel project would take up to 15 years to build, and includes roughly 6,000 kilometres of transportation links over some of the most difficult terrain in the world.
Russian officials will co-ordinate the project with the U.S. and Canadian governments, TKM-World Link, which groups companies involved in the development, said in a statement released this week in Moscow.
OAO Russian Railways, national utility OAO Unified Energy System and pipeline operator OAO Transneft are among the companies that were named as participating in the project, although an official at Transneft denied involvement.
Link to article
Russia calls on Canada to board Bering tunnel
Intercontinental train route under the strait to go through British Columbia
SHAWN MCCARTHY
From Friday's Globe and Mail
April 20, 2007 at 4:26 AM EST
OTTAWA — Russia's ambassador in Ottawa says a $60-billion (U.S.) proposal to build a rail tunnel under the Bering Strait is no pipedream, and that Canada needs to be part of the megaproject.
Ambassador Georgiy Mamedov said yesterday that the hugely ambitious project had its modern genesis in a high-level U.S.-Russian committee that was charged by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former Russian President Boris Yeltsin to pursue increased transportation links between the two former Cold War rivals.
It was shelved after Russia experienced its financial meltdown in 1998, but Mr. Mamedov said the proponents now have the support of President Vladimir Putin to develop a firm proposal.
The ambassador, who was a senior Foreign Ministry official during the earlier discussions, said he is now optimistic that the Bering Strait tunnel will be built.
"We have the will, we have the money, and we have the capacity," he said.
"But we need Canada aboard" because the intercontinental train route would go through British Columbia.
Proponents of the project held a press briefing in Moscow this week, ahead of a conference next week that will be attended by supporters from Alaska, as well as Russian officials.
Mr. Mamedov said the rail link would provide commercial freight deliveries from Asian markets to North America, and back again.
It could include energy pipelines that would feed Russian oil and/or natural gas into U.S. markets, but the Russians are already committed to build pipelines to China and are constructing liquefied natural gas facilities in the eastern Arctic to ship natural gas to international markets.
At a bilateral meeting last month, Canada and Russia formed a special transportation group to examine various proposals for increased linkages, including air connections between Winnipeg and Krasnoyarsk, and a polar sea route from Murmansk to Churchill, Man.
The ambassador said he expected Mr. Putin and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to touch on the Bering Strait project at the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June.
Canadian officials say they are aware of the proposed megaproject and will study it when Russia produces a more detailed proposal.
But one senior official said yesterday that it is not certain that Mr. Harper will have a bilateral meeting with Mr. Putin at the Group of Eight major industrialized countries, and that it is "premature to speculate" on the topics they will cover if they do meet.
The Bering tunnel project would take up to 15 years to build, and includes roughly 6,000 kilometres of transportation links over some of the most difficult terrain in the world.
Russian officials will co-ordinate the project with the U.S. and Canadian governments, TKM-World Link, which groups companies involved in the development, said in a statement released this week in Moscow.
OAO Russian Railways, national utility OAO Unified Energy System and pipeline operator OAO Transneft are among the companies that were named as participating in the project, although an official at Transneft denied involvement.
