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MacKay Dismisses Russian Effort to Claim Sovereignty in Arctic Ocean

Posted on: Thursday, 2 August 2007, 15:13 CDT

CHARLOTTETOWN (CP) - Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay is dismissing an expedition that has sought to validate Russia's claim to sovereignty over a large portion of the Arctic Ocean.

"There is no question over Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. We've made that very clear. We've established - a long time ago - that these are Canadian waters and this is Canadian property." MacKay said Thursday while attending the federal Conservative summer strategy session in Charlottetown.

"You can't go around the world these days dropping a flag somewhere. This isn't the 14th or 15th century."

Two deep-diving Russian mini-submarines descended more than four kilometres under North Pole ice to stake a flag on the ocean floor Thursday, part of a quest to bolster Russian claims to much of the Arctic's oil-and-mineral wealth.

Despite the dangers of diving under 1.5-metre thick polar ice, both mini-submarines returned safely to the surface Thursday afternoon, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, quoting Vice-President of Federation of Polar Explorers, Vladimir Strugatsky.

The voyage had some scientific goals, including studies of the climate, geology and biology of the polar region. But its chief aim appeared to be to advancing Russia's political and economic influence by strengthening its legal claims to the Arctic.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin called the mission participants after their return, congratulating them on a successful mission, the Kremlin said.

MacKay said the Law of the Sea protocol, which Russia and Canada have both signed, "would immediately kick in were there to be any dispute."

"And there is dispute. This is Canadian territory, plain and simple."

MacKay says recent announcements about new frigates for Arctic patrols should the government's commitment to the sovereignty of the north.

"This is posturing," MacKay said of the Russian move. "This is the true north strong and free, and they're fooling themselves if they think dropping a flag on the ocean floor is going to change anything."

Canada plans to spend C$7.5 billion to build and operate up to eight Arctic patrol ships in a bid to help protect its sovereignty.

The Russians are not the only ones eyeing the Arctic seabed. Denmark hopes to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of the Danish territory of Greenland, not Russia.

In the coming weeks, expedition researchers plan to set up an Arctic research camp near the pole, called a "drift station" because it will drift with the shifting ice pack in the polar sea, to carry out long-range climate studies. The scientific research ship Akademik Fyodorov is expected to remain in the region until mid-September.

Source: Canadian Press

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