RIA Novosti
April 21, 2008
Arctic spring fever
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Maxim Krans) - A new North Pole expedition, which on Friday April 18 was blessed by the Russian government's Maritime Commission, is to continue explorations to bolster Russia's claim to the Arctic shelf.
But other claimants to oceanic areas, which hide up to one quarter of the world's remaining energy resources, are not going to sit idle either. Judging by everything, we are in for another round of fighting for the possession of truly untold mineral resources.
The current Arktika-2008 expedition, like the previous one, will be held as part of the International Polar Year, which actually includes two yearly cycles of observations.
At the fourth Northern Socio-Ecological Congress in Syktyvkar recently, Artur Chilingarov suggested the year be extended for another five years.
The motive is clear, and the top Russian polar explorer does not conceal it: "It is no secret that polar countries are trying to make the Arctic an international resource. We, however, must make it plain to the global community that we will not give up our interests in the Arctic."
The academic tasks of the expedition are taking a back seat. Of course, all expeditions to the pole pursue scientific aims, but they are all closely linked with concrete economic interests.
Russia has little time left to prove the far from obvious fact that the Lomonosov Ridge under the ocean is a continuation of the Siberian continental platform. This, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, allows Russia to claim a triangle with a base formed by the coastline from the Kola Peninsula to Chukotka's tip and the apex at the North Pole.
Last year, Chilingarov placed a Russian flag at that apex, laying Russia's claims to a vast territory covering 1.2 million square kilometers. A few months later he installed a titanium tricolor under it, in the oceanic depths. True, he failed to persuade foreign rivals, or the Russian scientists for whom he raised soil samples from the bottom. Contrary to the upbeat remarks by some officials, they are not enough to prove Russia's sovereignty over that part of the ocean.
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, speaking at the commission, sharply criticized the ministries and government departments charged with the task saying: "They have underestimated the importance of the mission, and chosen the wrong means of accomplishing it."
In 2001, Russia had already tried to go about the problem the easy way. But experts from the UN Commission on the Limits to the Continental Shelf found its arguments unconvincing. This time, Russia must make a more compelling case.
The seismic probing and terrain surveys done by earlier expeditions will no longer do. What is needed is soil samples, which can be obtained only by drilling, but Russia does not have such drilling vessels. So this is going to be a puzzle that will take a very ingenious person to solve.
Russia's rivals are meanwhile stepping up their efforts. A report delivered at the March summit of the European Union said bluntly that the EU countries should brace for conflicts with Russia over Arctic energy resources and draw up a common policy.
The same subject is treated in NATO's "new manifesto," which was discussed recently at its Bucharest summit. The theme was also taken up at the Nordic Globalization Forum in Sweden's Riksgransen, attended by the prime ministers of Scandinavian countries.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the United Sates is likewise stepping up the efforts to join the Convention on the Law of the Sea, without which it cannot tender for the Arctic wealth. In the meantime it is building up its sea muscle: it has decided to construct two new heavy icebreakers and to open a coast guard base at Barrow, the northernmost point in Alaska.
Canada is also going to establish its military outpost in the Arctic, as well as a deep-sea port. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised that six patrol ships will be protecting the country's north-west within the next few years.
Paradoxically, not only Arctic Club member-countries are claiming the shelf. Germany and China are showing an unconcealed interest in it, and sent expeditions to that region last year, as well as South Korea, France, the Netherlands and over two dozens other nations.
The United Kingdom has for the first time laid claim to the Arctic shelf, or rather to Rockall, a tiny granite rock in the North Atlantic - altogether 27 meters across. In 1955, the U.K. annexed this islet, the empire's last territorial gain. Denmark, Ireland and Iceland are now claiming it, and it is understandable why: the possession of Rockall enables the owner to push its maritime borders 150 miles further out, closer to the cherished Arctic treasures. London's application must be considered by the UN Commission before May of next year.
Spring fever is in the air, and the coveted object is the ocean shelf. This can only be expected with the approach of a new Arctic season. As the ice thaws, a further cooling of relations may be seen on the "northern fronts." It is very likely that in response to Russia's new expedition other claimants will send their own research armadas to the North Pole.
In the big game involving both great and not as great powers, all players are aware that the one that gets a sizeable piece of the Arctic pie will be well off for decades after. As the British Observer magazine recently remarked: "those who control oil and water will control the world."