President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's military on Tuesday to step up its presence in the Arctic after Canada signaled its intention to claim the North Pole and surrounding waters.
President Vladimir Putin ordered
Russia
's
military on Tuesday to step up its presence in the
Arctic
after
Canada
signaled its intention to claim the North Pole and surrounding waters.
"I would like you to devote special attention to deploying infrastructure
and military units in the
Arctic
,"
Putin told a Russian defense ministry meeting in televised remarks.
Canada
last
week filed a claim with the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental
Shelf concerning the outer limits of its continental shelf in the
Atlantic
Ocean
.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said the submission includes
Canada
's
claim to the North Pole.
Russia
has
an overlapping claim to both the North Pole and large parts of the
Arctic
that
are believed to include vast oil and natural gas reserves.
A government-sponsored diving team in 2007 planted a Russian flag on the seabed
under the North Pole and the Kremlin has long mulled plans to deploy a large
military presence in the region.
Putin told Tuesday's defense ministry meeting that "next year, we have to
complete the formation of new large units and military divisions" in the
Arctic
that
remain on constant combat alert.
He said
Russia
was
"ever more actively reclaiming this promising region, returning to
it" after a brief absence that followed the
Soviet
Union
's collapse.
The Kremlin chief added that
Russia
must
possess "all the levers necessary for protecting its security and national
interests" in the region.
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