Russia has submitted an adjusted bid concerning the extension of the limits of the Arctic continental shelf to the Commission on the Borders of the Continental Shelf, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on August 4.
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Moscow said in a statement that it was claiming 1.2 million sq km (more than 463,000 sq miles) of the Arctic sea shelf, extending more than 350 nautical miles (around 650km) from the coast.
Russian Federation and other countries adjacent to the area-the US, Canada, Denmark and Norway-are vying for Arctic territories, which are estimated to contain one-fourth of the world’s reserves of oil and gas.
The competition for Arctic resources has intensified in recent years as the shrinking polar ice opens new opportunities for exploration.
The Russian Protection Ministry has additionally flexed its muscle over the contested Arctic riches with an enormous army train in March that deployed 40,000 troops, 50 warships and greater than 100 fight plane into and over the Barents Sea. The foreign ministry said this time around it has “ample scientific data collected in years of scientific research”.
Russian Federation was the first to submit its claim in 2002, but the United Nations sent it back for lack of evidence.
In 2007, Moscow symbolically dropped a canister containing a Russian flag on the Arctic Ocean floor from a submarine at the North Pole.
The claims are aimed at a section of the Arctic Ocean known as the doughnut hole, a Texas-size area of worldwide waters encircled by the existing economic-zone boundaries of shoreline countries.
Environmental teams are warning towards a rush to develop the Arctic delivery route and extract the power assets underneath the ocean mattress. “Until we act collectively, this area might be dotted with oil wells and fishing fleets inside our lifetimes”.
Currently, under worldwide law, no country owns the North Pole or the Arctic circle surrounding it.
Among tensions over the Ukraine crisis and with neighbours in the Baltic, Vladimir Putin has also moved to increase his military presence in the Arctic.
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As global warming causes the Arctic ice cap to melt, more of the previously unchartered territory has become accessible.
