Global General

Russia to submit Arctic claim to UN next year

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-07-06 20:46

* Russia says will spend millions of dollars to prove claims

* Wants to claim resource-rich undersea ridge

MOSCOW - Russia said on Wednesday it would formally submit an application to the United Nations next year in the hope of redrawing the map of the Arctic, giving itself a bigger share of the resource-rich territory.

The plan follows a pledge last week to send troops and weapons to its icy north to guarantee its Arctic interests. The formal application to the United Nations would change the region's borders and allow exploitation of the energy-rich Arctic territory.

Russia, Norway, the United States, Canada and Denmark are at odds over how to divide up the Arctic seabed, thought to hold 90 billion barrels of oil and 30 percent of the world's untapped gas resources, according to the US Geological Survey.

"I hope that next year we will present a formal, scientifically grounded application to the commission of the UN," state-run RIA news agency cited Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov as telling a government maritime board.

Top energy producer Russia has said it will spend millions of dollars on studies to prove that an underwater mountain range -- rich in oil, natural gas and mineral deposits -- is part of its own Eurasian landmass.

Canada and Denmark reject the claim, saying the geographical formation, known as the Lomonosov Ridge, which stretches across the Arctic Sea, is a geographical extension of their own land.

Global warming has boosted expectations that the Arctic may provide new mining, fishing and shipping prospects as the ice cap melts.

Russia submitted an application to the UN to claim the Lomonosov Ridge in 2001, but the document was returned and Moscow was asked to provide more proof for its claim.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said late last month that Russia would finish its mapping of its Arctic shelf by 2013 and submit its application to the UN on its claim to the Lomonosov Ridge by 2014.

Canada has said it will submit its application on the territory in 2013.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea says that any coastal state can claim undersea territory 200 nautical miles from their shoreline and exploit the natural resources within that zone.