Ekaterina Serova: China’s icebreaker fleet growth creates new Arctic cooperation opportunities with Russia

Ekaterina Serova, Director of the International Relations Department at the Project Office for Arctic Development (PORA), spoke to the Norilsk-based publication Severny Gorod about the development of China’s icebreaker fleet and how the balance of power in the Arctic is shifting amid growing interest from various countries in polar shipbuilding. Russia maintains an advantage due to its accumulated experience in operating icebreakers and the consistent development of its own nuclear fleet, while cooperation between Moscow and Beijing can be built on the complementary capabilities of the two countries, the expert believes. Below is a brief summary of the published article for our readers.

China has significantly stepped up its near-Arctic activities. In recent years, Beijing has notably expanded its own competencies in the construction of ice-class vessels. In 2019, the Chinese-built research icebreaker Xuelong-2 was put into operation; its design was developed jointly with Finland’s Aker Arctic. Subsequently, the country continued to develop its own research fleet, and in the summer of 2026, it dispatched four research vessels to the Arctic at once. At the same time, China’s shipbuilding industry is working on heavier icebreakers, including a concept for a nuclear-powered vessel.

According to Ekaterina Serova, China’s progress demonstrates how consistently the country is investing in the development of Arctic competencies, despite lacking direct access to Arctic waters. She noted that in less than seven years, Chinese shipbuilding has moved from co-designing icebreaker vessels with foreign partners to steadily building its own capabilities in creating ice-class research fleets.

At the same time, the expert emphasized that China’s capabilities must still be measured against Russia’s accumulated experience. Russia has been operating a nuclear icebreaker fleet for decades and possesses unique competencies in this area. Serova stressed that Russia’s nuclear icebreakers were built on the basis of Soviet and Russian developments. Despite the long‑standing involvement of Finnish shipyards in fulfilling major orders for the USSR, Finnish design bureaus did not participate in the development of nuclear icebreakers as such. And today, Russia is developing its icebreaker capacity as a long‑term, systematic program, rather than as an attempt to catch up with competitors, Serova noted. As examples, she cited the Project 22220 universal nuclear icebreakers and the Project 10510 Leader nuclear icebreaker currently under construction.

The PORA expert also commented separately on international competition in icebreaker shipbuilding. In particular, the United States, Canada, and Finland are developing cooperation under the ICE Pact, which envisions joint design and construction of polar icebreakers as well as technology sharing. In the expert’s view, the emergence of such a partnership indicates that states which previously did not view the icebreaker fleet as a priority area are now seeking to close the gap. This, she assessed, shows where the most significant practical competencies and operational experience with icebreaker fleets are currently concentrated.

Speaking about Russian-Chinese interaction, the PORA expert stressed that Moscow is building dialogue with Beijing not as a response to competition from other states, but on a mutually beneficial basis. Russia possesses decades of experience in high‑latitude operations, the Northern Sea Route, infrastructure, and competencies in supporting Arctic navigation. China, for its part, has a growing commercial and research fleet; it is interested in developing cargo traffic along Arctic routes and is ready to invest in relevant technologies.