They see the Northwest Passage as an international strait that any ship should be free to transit. and some other countries, especially now Russia, don’t agree. The Canadian government says the jurisdiction is clear – they’re Canadian waters. But what about the water between them? Who, if anyone, has jurisdiction over the waters separating Somerset Island from Devon Island, or Melville Island from Banks Island? The vast and frozen Arctic archipelago even gets its own reference in the country’s national anthem: “The true north, strong and free.”īut how much of “Canada’s North” is Canada’s? Just about everyone agrees that the many islands that dot the Arctic to the north of Canada’s mainland belong to Canada. The true north, strong and freeĬanadians have always tended to regard the northernmost reaches of their land as an integral, if isolated, part of the country.
As a spokesman for its Arctic and Antarctic Institute said, “It’s like putting a flag on the moon.”įor Canadians, of course, this is more like waving a red flag in front of a bull. That’s what Russia is doing by systematically charting the reach of its Lomonosov underwater shelf. But if a country can prove its underwater shelf is an extension of its continental border, then it can claim an economic zone based on that. The North Pole is considered an international site and is administered by the International Seabed Authority. Russia’s game plan was to extend its territory almost up to the Pole itself, to claim the vast mineral and energy resources many feel lie underneath the Arctic ice. In 2007, the stakes were raised considerably when Russia launched a naval manoeuvre designed to plant an actual Russian flag, in a titanium capsule, at the base of the North Pole, 4,200 metres below sea level.
0 kommentar(er)
