Russia Claims North Pole, Plants A Small Flag On The Ocean Floor : Trending News : ISchoolGuide

Russia Claims North Pole, Plants A Small Flag On The Ocean Floor : Trending News : ISchoolGuide

Russia has called on the United Nations for an exclusive economic control of the Arctic Region, including the North Pole. The area over 463,000 square miles may have valuable deposits of  nearly 5 billion tons of oil and gas, as well as valuable minerals. The Arctic has become more accessible as it continued to melt in an unprecedented rates. It could also be a potential important northern shipping route as glaciers slowly melt due to global climate change.

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CNBC reports that Russia is invoking a rule because it "can demonstrate that the continental shelf on which it sits actually extends farther than 200 miles. In such cases, the law recognizes a 350-mile limit."   The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that each nation is entitled to an exclusive economic zone that extends 200 nautical miles into the ocean from the nation's baseline.

It can be recalled that the United Nations rejected a similar claim by Russia in 2002 because of lack of scientific evidence. In an effort of Russia to claim the North Pole, leaders have sent a mini-submarine to collect scientific evidence. According to the New York Times, the sub planted a small Russian flag on the sea floor beneath the North Pole.

Russia's North Pole claim puts Canada into an uncomfortable position to negotiate over the Arctic region. Five countries including Russia, the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway are negotiating with the United Nations to define the jurisdictional boundaries in the Arctic Region.

"To justify Russia's rights in this area, a vast array of scientific data collected during many years of Arctic research has been used," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement according to Vice News.

In the recent years, Russia has constructed military bases and repaired installation in the North Pole. The Russian Federation has built ten search-and-rescue stations, 16 deep-water ports, 13 airfields, and 10 air-defense radar stations.