Ensuring the viability of shipping in the arctic is the next mission for the world's navies, Royal Navy Vice Admiral Jerry Kyd said at the London International Shipping Week conference Thursday.
With the arctic warming, the northern reaches of the globe are increasingly open for navigation — especially the Northern Sea Route north of Russia — but no one state should be allowed to dominate the region, Kyd said.
"This is where we must ensure freedom of navigation, the free flow of trade, is unfettered and not controlled by adjacent nation states," he said. "That messaging must be consistent from governments around the world and the shipping industry."
Kyd did not name Russia specifically in his discussion of the arctic, but the country has been building nuclear-powered icebreakers and readying ports in anticipation of greater shipping activity.
While not in the arctic, Russia did hit out at shipping last year by parking a tanker in the Kerch Strait, cutting off access from Ukraine to the Black Sea, and seizing Ukrainian navy ships.
Kyd said many state and non-state actors are now operating in what he called the "grey zone", actions that fall short of acts of war, but still disruptive to the industry.
Further, weapons like mines and missiles are available in the open market, he said, ending up in the hands of groups like Yemeni Houthi and Hezbollah and then used to attack ships.
Despite that, Kyd said the world's navies are on the same page when it comes to the need to defend freedom of navigation.
"It's not lost on the various navies around the world of the challenge we have in protecting and ensuring your safety to that extent," he said. "The good news in all this is navies have a common understanding of all this and a common picture.
"At our peril, we let freedom of navigation of our trade routes to be endangered or even threatened. ... We are stronger together."
