On November 18, India’s Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said that the vital Chennai-Vladivostok Maritime Corridor (CVMC) has become activated and is already carrying oil, textile and metal to Indian ports and will significantly strengthen the maritime relations between India and Russia. Also known as the Eastern Maritime Corridor (EMC) or the Chennai-Vladivostok Sea Route (CVSR), the corridor spans approximately 5,600 nautical miles and is expected to reduce the time required to transport cargo between Russian ports of the Far East region and the Indian ports, by up to 16 days. 

Currently, the time taken to transport cargo between India and the Russian Far East (RFE) is at least 40 days which will come down to 24 days with the operationalization of CVMC. A large container ship cruising at a typical speed of 20-25 knots will be able to cover this distance in about 10-12 days. Vladivostok, which is located about 50 km from the Russia-China border and is located on the RFE, is Russia’s largest port on the Pacific Ocean. Thus, the corridor holds tremendous potential to provide new opportunities for Indo-Russian bilateral cooperation.

Key imperatives behind the CVMC project 

First, the thrust on increased economic engagement with the RFE (whose export profile is predominantly centred on energy sources and where India has strategic economic interests) The development of the corridor was aimed at boosting Indo-Russian economic cooperation. The operationalisation of the corridor is expected to increase the trade between India and Russia as the lack of connectivity between the two countries was often considered as one of the factors for their limited trade. It was in 2019 when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Vladivostok to attend both the annual Indo-Russian bilateral summit and the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) that the two countries signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) on the Development of Maritime Communications between the Port of Chennai (India) and the Port of Vladivostok (Russia)’. Thus, the Chennai-Vladivostok connection, which was active for a few years during the Soviet era has been finally revived now. The corridor provides India with the opportunity to extract energy (and other major resources) in RFE without being overly dependent on the volatile West Asian energy market.

Second, is the geopolitical imperative. For Russia, the idea of ‘Greater Eurasia’ aims to integrate the Atlantic to the Pacific, including both continental and maritime dimensions. In accordance, Russian President Vladimir Putin has emphasized “connecting the ports of the Northern Sea Route in the Arctic with those in the Pacific and Indian oceans” to promote the maritime dimension of Greater Eurasia. Moscow believes that a synergy could also be developed with New Delhi’s ‘Act Far East Policy’ in which the latter has expressed an interest in the RFE. Thus, the two countries could work closely on boosting the connectivity relations in which CVMC occupies a critical place.

Another dimension of India's Indo Pacific vision

For New Delhi, the corridor adds another dimension to the Indo-Pacific as the South Asian power seeks to convince Moscow of its vision. Unlike what Russia thinks, India has underlined that its vision of the Indo-Pacific is not directed against any nation. New Delhi has also called for "harmonizing the interests" of Russia and India in the Indian and Pacific Oceans in which the CVMC is supposed to play a critical role. Vladivostok holds a significant place for India, particularly about the Arctic and the Northern Sea routes which include the idea of a ‘geo-political connectivity Arc’ from the northern tip of the Arctic to Vladivostok to Chennai. Moscow also considers India’s presence in the NSR a positive development as the former is concerned about China’s rising footprints in the Arctic. 

The CVMC will enhance India's maritime footprints in the Indo-Pacific and the South China Sea - through which the corridor passes - even though the latter is considered by China as its strategic backyard and may potentially conflict with Beijing's strategic goals with the Maritime Silk Route. It will also help counter Beijing’s ambitions of global hegemony across this region. Thus, CVMC is in line with India’s Indo-Pacific vision of deepening its geopolitical and geoeconomic imprints in the Indo-Pacific.

Additionally, the corridor can help strengthen India’s inland waterways with the help of a low-draft vessel technology system from Russia, considered the best in the world. Russia’s greater participation in the project can increase the cargo handling capacity of Indian ports to 2,600 million tonnes.

Fourth, the route is expected to help the Kudankulam nuclear power project being built on India’s east coast in collaboration with Russia.

Furthermore, after the operationalisation of CVMC, India now plans to link two other ports on the east coast – Vizag and Paradip- with this corridor, to make it more feasible and effective for the exporters as the route is picking up very fast among them. Currently, key exports to Russia from India include textiles, machine parts and engineering goods while the top Russian exports are petroleum and LNG.

Lastly, New Delhi is now also looking into the possibility of using this corridor for shipping coal from both Russia and Mongolia.

An alternative to the Red Sea route

The corridor, which is estimated to reduce the travel time between India and Russia by 50 per cent, is also being viewed as a possible alternative to the Red Sea route which due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war since 2023 has given birth to the Red Sea crisis and the consequent increased travel time and high costs. Although the Vladivostok route is considered costly comparatively, the Red Sea route takes around 48 days and the CVMC will take around 15 days, which will accrue some benefits to the exporters in transport and operational costs.

Moscow is also working to include Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia as the intermediate stops of the CVMC as part of its efforts to strengthen New Delhi’s business connections with the resource-rich RFE. India and Russia are also planning a joint shipbuilding project for maritime trade. New Delhi has plans to establish a trans-shipment hub in the Bay of Bengal.

Rationalise for developing CVMC

However, in addition to the corridor, India needs to focus on strengthening other critical factors as well, such as increasing the crude oil refining capacity on its east coast and establishing new refineries on the east coast, as old refineries cannot adequately refine Russian crude which is heavier due to large quantities of sulphur while most of the refineries capable of refining Russian crude are on the western coast.

The rationale for developing CVMC is that enhanced connectivity will yield long-term advantages. India and Russia are working to align their economic policy visions, boosten their strategic partnership and explore possibilities of collaboration with third parties.

(The author is a Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Guru Nanak Dev University (Amritsar), Punjab, India. She is a risk analyst at the Indo-Pacific Studies Center (IPSC), an international think tank. Views expressed are personal. She can be contacted at naliniesharma14vj@gmail.com and Nalinie Sharma | LinkedIn .)