The Northern Sea Route in the context of China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative

The MSR Initiative is part of a larger project, initiated by China in 2013 and today commonly known as the OBOR Initiative. This initiative at present comprehends a land component, the Silk Road Economic Belt, and a sea component, the Maritime Silk Road. The latter is generally understood to run south of the former. This chapter tries to answer the question whether the Chinese OBOR Initiative also encompasses a maritime leg running north of the Silk Road Economic Belt, i.e. a maritime waterway making use of the sea route running north of the Eurasian continent, namely the so-called Northeast Passage, including the Russian Northern Sea Route.