Russia Offers Egypt Assistance in Freeing Ship Blocking Suez
Russia's ambassador to Egypt on Sunday offered the country "any possible assistance," as efforts continue to free a megaship that has been blocking the Suez Canal for nearly a week.
The MV Ever Given has been stuck diagonally across the span of the canal since Tuesday, blocking the waterway in both directions.
In comments to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, Russian ambassador Georgy Borisenko said that Moscow is ready to help any way it can.
"We hope that this problem will be overcome in the very near future, that the work of the channel will be restored, and, naturally, we are ready to provide our Egyptian friends with any possible assistance from our side," the ambassador said.
Borisenko added that Egypt has not reached out to Moscow for support, but said Russia "empathizes with what's happening now in the Suez Canal," describing it as "an important waterway for the whole world."
On Saturday, Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie had told reporters that the massive ship could be afloat by Sunday night.
The jam has crippled international trade and forced companies to reconsider re-routing vessels around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, a longer and more expensive way to travel between Asia and Europe.
Another Russian ambassador had earlier this week seized on the Suez Canal blockage to promote Russia's northern shipping route as a reliable alternative, part of a broader push by Moscow to develop the Arctic and capitalize on climate change.
Moscow has invested heavily in the development of the Northern Sea Route that allows ships to cut the journey to Asian ports by 15 days compared with the conventional route via the Suez Canal.
28 March 2021, 17:31
00
From an engineering perspective, unblocking the canal is feasible and can be relatively quickly achieved. On an aerial draw perpendicular lines to the ship axis from both ends of the ship. Where these perpendicular lines meet the ground, hammer down piles and a concrete foundation on both sides of the canal opposing the stuck ends of the boat. Fix a pully on these concrete ends. Pullies in series can multiply the pulling force by number of loops. Tie both end of the boat to these opposing pulleys across the canal and have massive tractor pull at the same time on both ends. This will rotate the ship around its center freeing it from the sand dunes.
