Denmark Scoffs at Rival N. Pole Claims
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Denmark's science minister on Tuesday dismissed moves by Russia and Canada to assert sovereignty over the Arctic, saying flag-planting and political visits would not settle territorial claims in the potentially resource-rich region.
The scramble for the Arctic heated up two weeks ago when Russia sent two small submarines to plant a tiny national flag under the North Pole. Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent three days in the Canadian Arctic.
"No matter how many flags you plant or how many prime ministers you send that doesn't become a valid parameter in the process," Helge Sander, Denmark's minister of science, technology and innovation, told reporters.
Denmark sent a team of scientists to the Arctic ice pack Sunday to seek evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range, is attached to the Danish territory of Greenland.
The Danish expedition, which had been planned for years, might allow the Danes - under a U.N. treaty - to stake a claim that could stretch all the way to the North Pole, although Canada and Russia also claim the ridge.
The United States and Norway also have claims in the vast Arctic region, where a U.S. study suggests as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas could be hidden.
Russia and Canada "also have serious projects. But the lowering of the flag was simply a summer joke," Sander said.
The race for sovereignty in the Arctic is intensifying partly because global warming is shrinking the polar ice, which could someday open up resource development and new shipping lanes.
The pressure is also on the Arctic nations because of the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which gives them 10 years after ratification to prove their claims under the largely uncharted polar ice pack. All but the United States have ratified the treaty.
Denmark, which also plans expeditions in 2009 and 2011, expects to deliver its claim in 2014, Sander said. |
