Who Owns The North Pole?

Sigurd Hess

On 2 August 2007 two Russian bathy­scaphes descended to the North Pole seafloor. They placed a Russian flag made of titanium alloy onto the Arctic seabed at a depth of 4,261 m. The pictures of this flag raising — or should one better say flag lowering? — went around the globe. This media spectacle distracts from the scientific efforts of the expedition, which the research vessel “Akademic Fedorov”, following in the wake of the nuclear icebreaker “Rossiya” were undertaking. The oceanographic and geological research aims to establish that a section of the underwater mountains passing through the North Pole, known as the Lomonosov Ridge, are in fact an extension of the Siberian landmass. The political conclusion is obvious. Russia attempts to gain control over one quarter of the Arctic Ocean . The public excitement seems to be justified by the expected future run to grab vast chunks of the Arctic ocean and seabed to tap its enormous potential oil, gas and mineral wealth, to go after the massive shoals of fish and to participate in the new shipping bonanza along the famed Northeast and Northwest passages for tankers, container and cruise ships.
At the same time the other four countries surrounding the ice clad Arctic sea are announcing their claims or are renouncing the claims of others. Denmark sent the research vessel “Oden” into the Arctic on 12 August 2007 to collect scientific data, which is supposed to prove that the shelf north of Greenland extends also through the Lomonosov Ridge to the North Pole. It is interesting to note that the Danish expedition can reach its scientific and possibly political aims only with the assistance of the leased Russian nuclear icebreaker “50 Let Pobedy”, meaning “50 years of victory”. The government of Denmark called the placing of the Russian tricolour onto the North Pole seabed »a media gag without any importance«. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper immediately toured the vast Arctic provinces. He announced a 7.5 billion C$ program to order up to eight ice worthy patrol vessels for the Coast Guard of its northern territories and sea-lanes. The USA issued a statement to increase its naval presence in this strategically important ocean. In August 2007 the US Coast Guard icebreaker “Healy” steamed into the Arctic to map the sea floor off Alaska . Norway continues to claim the right to a contiguous continental shelf from its mainland via Svalbard into the Arctic Ocean .
But who actually owns the riches in the Arctic , which now seem to be more easily accessible? The amount of ice in the Arctic is shrinking with the global warming and the Arctic Sea areas will have longer seasons with ice-free periods in the future. The answer is simply that under international law, no country owns the North Pole or the region surrounding the Arctic Ocean yet. According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982 the five Arctic countries USA (via Alaska), Canada, Denmark (via Greenland), Norway (via Svalbard) and Russia are limited to the Territorial Sea, which extends 12 nm from their coastline, and to the Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nm from the territorial sea. Upon ratification of the UNCLOS a country has ten years to is­sue claims to expand its 200-mile-zone if the countries are able to prove that their shelf areas extend further out. US Congress has so far not ratified the UNCLOS, whereas Norway ratified the convention in 1996, Russia in 1997, Canada in the 2003 and Denmark in 2004 respectively.
On 20 December 2001 Russia made an official submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which in 2002 was neither rejected nor accepted by the commission, recommending additional research. A quick check of the map indicates that in general the Canadian and Russian continental shelf coincides widely with their respective 200-mile-zones. However, the 2007 Russian expedition reiterated that the Siberian shelf extends via the Lomonosov Ridge to the North Pole and in their opinion would justify the additional claim of 1.2 million km? outside its economic zone in the Arctic. The official Norwegian claim was submitted on 27 November 2006 and is contested by Russia concerning the borders in the Barents Sea. The Danish autonomous province of Greenland has the nearest coastline to the North Pole, and Denmark argues that the Lomonosov Ridge is in fact an extension of Greenland. The same argument is used by Canada claiming that the Ridge is an extension of Ellesmere Island.
The Geological Society in London branded all of these claims as nonsensical. “The notion that the geological structures can somehow dictate ownership is deeply peculiar. Anyway, the Lomonosov Ridge is not part of the continental shelf — it is the point at which two ocean floor plates under the Arctic Ocean are spreading apart”. Actually the Alpha, Lomonosov and Mendeleev Ridges separate the Eurasian from the Amerasian part of the Arctic Ocean. It remains to be seen if and when the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will rule on the Russian, Danish, Norwegian and Canadian claims. As far as the exploration of oil, gas and mineral resources of the Arctic are concerned it is the UN International Seabed Authority, which will organize and monitor all activity that extends beyond areas of national jurisdiction.
The seabed and its riches belong to the common heritage of mankind as defined in the UNCLOS. Should the two UN bodies fail to reach agreement with the five Arctic countries it will be the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, which has the exclusive authority to rule over disputes concerning shelf extensions and oil, gas and mineral explorations.
President Vladimir Putin made a speech on a nuclear icebreaker earlier this year, urging greater efforts to secure Russia’s “strategic, economic, scientific and defence interests” in the Arctic. However, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also indicated Russia’s intent to honour the international law of the sea. As long as Russia as well as the other Arctic countries abides to the UNCLOS, there is no reason to get overly excited about Arctic expeditions even if they result in posting flags, by the way in a similar fashion, as did other explorers of the Arctic Ocean before them.

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