MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Canada prepares for the rush on Arctic claim and resources

Canada is preparing to claim an area of the Arctic Ocean seabed equivalent in size to almost two million square kilometres as part of Ottawa's aggressive effort to defend the country's interests in the North, said Canadian Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn.

Mr. Lunn is scheduled to attend an Arctic Council meeting in Greenland with four other countries that have significant - and in some cases, competing - claims to territorial jurisdiction beyond the traditional 200-nautical-mile limit. "We will be reaffirming our commitment about defending and protecting our sovereignty in the Arctic," Mr. Lunn said in an interview with Canadian media. "It's a priority for our government. The Prime Minister has said: 'Use it or lose it.' And we're not going to lose it." Denmark is hosting the Greenland meeting, which will also have representatives from Russia, Norway and the United States. All five countries are preparing claims to the sub-sea continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, although the US still has to ratify the treaty. The participants will discuss how to proceed with economic and social development in the North, and how to give northerners more control, Mr. Lunn said. In doing so, they are attempting to prevent an unbridled resource rush in which countries stake competing claims and ignore social and environmental problems in their haste to exploit what some believe is the planet's last great, untapped source of energy and mineral resources. The US Geological Survey has estimated that as much as 25% of the world's remaining oil and gas reserves lies under the Arctic Ocean, and access to those high Arctic waters is improving as a result of melting sea-ice. Russia sparked a furor last summer when a submarine planted a flag on a contested area of the seabed, sparking fears of a 19th-century-style competition for territory among great powers. The United States has sent icebreakers into waters Canada believes should fall under its control. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pledged to beef up Canada's military presence in the Arctic. He also recently vetoed MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.'s planned sale of its space robotics and satellite technology business to a U.S. company on the grounds that Canada has a strategic interest in maintaining domestic ownership over the firm's Radarsat 2 satellite, which provides surveillance of the Far North. Mr. Lunn said that Canadian scientists are amassing evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge, which extends under the Arctic Ocean, originates in the North American continent. Ottawa has earmarked 40 million US dollars over the next several years for scientists from the Geological Survey of Canada to map the Arctic Ocean and provide conclusive evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge is, in fact, part of the North American continental shelf. If the UN validates that claim, Canada can assert sovereignty over the seabed all along the ridge, although experts expect Canada will claim the area west of the ridge and Denmark will assert sovereignty over the area east of the ridge and closer to Greenland. Russia says it has conclusive evidence the Lomonosov Ridge extends from the Eurasian continent.