China Interested in Project to Lay Optical Fiber Cable in Russian Arctic

China has taken an interest in the joint project with Russia along Russia's Arctic coast.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — China has taken an interest in the project to lay an underwater optical fiber cable along Russia's Arctic coast, Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communication said in a press release Friday after a meeting between the ministry's head Nikolay Nikiforov and Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei.

"Projects in telecommunications were a major theme of the discussion. The Chinese side expressed its interest in the project to build of a subsea optical fiber cable along the Russia's Arctic cost," the press release read.

The sides also discussed a project to create a personal mobile satellite communication system that was previously presented at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting. The project is aimed at providing SCO members with personal mobile satellite communication. It is anticipated that the project will be implemented in cooperation with public and private Chinese companies.

The main mechanism of cooperation between the Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communication and the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is the Russian-Chinese commission on preparation of regular meetings of heads of governments that holds meetings annually. The 16th meeting of the Commission was held on June 8, 2017 in Moscow.