UHFMagazine - 2008-05 - May 2008: the new gold rush

As noted by a study from the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom (see 1), the North pole is assumed to contain vast reserves of natural resources.

Therefore the July-August 2007 Russian mission was to position Russia claims on the North Arctic region (see 2), asserting that the North Polar region is an extension of the coastal shelf.

Russia obviously plans to submit claim to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf that the Lomonosov Ridge belongs to Russia, following a State Council meeting in Murmansk in May 2007 where then-President Vladimir Putin proposed setting up a National Arctic Council to manage the resources.

Thanks to its own infrastructure in the North region, Russia is uniquely well positioned to benefit from the retreating polar ice (see January issue of United Hamster Magazine), and the potential opening of the Northern Sea route (i.e. a shorter sea route passing closer to the North Pole, that used to be closed by ice most of the year, now open quite often).

Incidentally, Canada claims sovereignty over the waters of the Northwest passage- but this claim is accepted by no other nation, despite the Canadian military decision to refer to the region as ",Canadian Internal Waters"

Of course, this creates some friction with Canada, Denmark (Greenland is part of the territory of this country), Norway, and United States, who are interested in the same region (incidentally- all four are members of NATO).

Yes, there are treaties and agreements covering the Antarctic, but Russia is not the first to prepare for a future exploitation of resources or the Arctic.

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