Arctic Claimants Say They Will Obey UN Rules
GREENLAND: May 29, 2008
ILULISSAT, Greenland - Five Arctic coastal nations agreed on Wednesday to
let the UN rule on conflicting territorial claims on the region's seabed,
which may hold up to one fourth of the world's undiscovered hydrocarbon
reserves.
"We affirmed our commitment to the orderly settlement of any possible
overlapping claims," US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a
news conference.
Ministers from Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States met in
Greenland for a two-day summit to discuss sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean
seabed.
Under the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention, coastal states own the seabed
beyond existing 200-nautical mile (370-km) zones if it is part of a
continental shelf of shallower waters. The rules aim to fix shelves' outer
limits on a clear geological basis, but have created a tangle of overlapping
Arctic claims.
The United States has not yet ratified the convention, but Negroponte urged
Congress to do so as soon as possible.
The countries, most major oil exporters, agreed to settle conflicting
territorial claims by the law until a UN body could rule on the disputes.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller called the meeting in his country's
self-governing province to try to end squabbling over ownership of huge
tracts of the Arctic seabed, although it will be several decades before oil
drilling in the deep Arctic sea is feasible.
Also attending were Greenland Premier Hans Enoksen, Russian and Norwegian
Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Jonas Gahr Stoere and Canadian Natural
Resources Minister Gary Lunn.
"The declaration reflects the will of all participants to resolve all issues
which might evolve in the spirit of cooperation and on the basis of
international law," said Lavrov.
Russia last summer angered the other Arctic nations by planting a flag on
the seabed under the North Pole, an incident Lavrov dismissed as
insignificant on Wednesday.
CRITICISM
Environmental groups were not invited and have criticised the scramble for
the Arctic, saying it will damage unique animal habitats. They call for a
treaty similar to that regulating the Antarctic, which bans military
activity and mineral mining.
"It is insane to view the crisis of the melting of the Arctic ice simply as
an opportunity to carve up the resources that are currently protected under
the ice," Greenpeace Nordic campaigner, Lindsay Keenan, told Reuters.
Greenpeace said the world already had four times more fossil fuel reserves
than it could afford to burn.
"They are going to use the law of the sea to carve up the raw materials, but
they are ignoring the law of common sense. These are the same fossil fuels
that are driving climate change in the first place," Keenan said.
The five nations agreed however that no special Arctic treaty was necessary,
saying in the declaration there was no need to develop a new international
legal regime.
The talks also focussed on the effects of climate change felt by people of
the Arctic, and covered cooperation over accidents, maritime security and
oil spills.
Scientists believe rising temperatures could leave most of the Arctic
ice-free in the summer months in a few decades' time.
As the ice sheet shrinks, icebergs will form and threaten shipping, which
may increase because the Northwest Passage will open and allow a quicker
route.
"The safety of life requires that we cooperate on search and rescue
operations and maintain regular communications to respond to accidents and
environmental emergencies," Negroponte said.
(Additional reporting by Gelu Sulugiuc in Copenhagen)
(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Story by Kim McLaughlin
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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