Ottawa to Clash with Russia over Claim to Arctic Seabed

A report has concluded that everything is in motion for a territorial between Russia and Canada, since it was recently revealed that Harper government ordered to rewrite of Canada’s international claim for Arctic seabed rights to include the North Pole, i.e. a region already marked as territory by Moscow.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is reported to have asked government bureaucrats to draft a more expansive international claim for ocean-floor riches in the Arctic, in response to a proposed submission showed to him that failed to include the geographic North Pole. This implies that Canada and Russia will both have overlapping claims, which is a situation that will mostly likely require negotiations between Ottawa and Moscow. Additionally, the Canadian government expects Denmark to claim the Pole. According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, “a country can secure control of the ocean floor beyond the internationally recognized 200 nautical mile limit if it can demonstrate the seabed is an extension of its continental shelf.”

An associate director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, Rob Huebert, applauded the decision made by the Prime Minister and alleged that he was afraid until now that Canada would relinquish its right to the Pole. He stated that “I wasn’t seeing any evidence that we were pushing the submission as far as we were entitled under international law.” Prof. Huebert alleged that Canada should not be “prematurely surrendering” the geographic North Pole, in fact it should look for the maximum gain.