Canada and Russia's foreign ministers traded claims over the Arctic Thursday as their countries eyed energy riches and shipping routes made increasingly accessible by melting Polar ice.
Canada
and
Russia
's
foreign ministers traded claims over the Arctic Thursday as their countries
eyed energy riches and shipping routes made increasingly accessible by melting
Polar ice.
Canada
's
Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said the aim of his mission to
Moscow
was
to explain his country's newly released Arctic policy, which includes a greater
military presence in the region.
"We do not have the intention to militarize the
Arctic
,"
he told a news conference following talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei
Lavrov.
But he insisted: "We will exercise our sovereignty in the Arctic."
"We are doing so in two ways: First, via a robust presence of Canadian
forces but also via the [scientific] equipment that may eventually prove our
claim," he said.
The two Arctic nations claim that the Lomonosov Ridge, a mountain chain running
underneath the
Arctic
, is an extension of their
continental shelf.
Both said Thursday that they expect the United Nations to rule on their rival
claims.
"We will submit our data on the Lomonosov Ridge and we are confident that
our case will prevail, backed by scientific evidence," Cannon said. "Both
Russia
and
Canada
respect the United Nations and the U.N. Convention on the Law of the
Seas."
Lavrov meanwhile was quick to warn that while
Moscow
would
defer to the U.N., another international organization--the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization--had no right to mediate disputing Arctic claims.
"I don't think that NATO will act correctly if it takes on the role of
deciding who and how to resolve problems in the
Arctic
,"
he said. "The [UN] commission will have to decide who is right and who is
wrong."
Canada
,
Denmark
,
Norway
,
Russia
and
the
United States
are
at odds over how to divide up the Arctic seabed, thought to hold 90 billion
barrels of oil and 30% of the world's untapped gas resources, according to the
U.S. Geological Survey.
The five Arctic nations are locked in a tight race to gather evidence to
support their claims amid recent reports by
U.S.
researchers warning global warming could leave the region ice free by 2030.
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