Who owns the Arctic?

• Published in: New internationalist no. 424; p. 16
• Main Author: Worth, Jess
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford New Internationalist Co-operative 01.07.2009
• Subjects: Byers, Michael; College professors; Colonies & territories; Regions; Sovereignty; Canada; United States > US; Arctic region
• ISSN: 0305-9529

Canada takes a different view, asserting the Northwest Passage, along with the of the waters of the Canadian Arctic archipelago, are 'Canadian internal waters' subject to the full force of Canadian law and to which access is not permitted without Canada's consent. This 'agreement to disagree' hasn't been of much importance because of the permanent presence of this thick hard ice. But in the last couple of years it has come into question as the prospect of foreign usage becomes ever more real. Foreign usage could include foreign oil tankers flying a flag of convenience [where the nationality of the ship's owner is different from its country of registration] and it could potentially involve security threats, for example if a state like North Korea decided to send a suspicious vessel through the Passage. Arctic explorer Artur Chilingarov shows a photograph of the Russian national flag that he planted on the seabed under the North Pole in August 2007. The provocative act, intended to stake a symbolic claim to the Arctic's mineral riches, didn't go down too well with Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay. 'This isn't the 15th century/ he spluttered. 'You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say "We're claiming this territory".' MB: Yes, all five countries are increasing their policing capabilities. They are training soldiers to survive and do search-and-rescue in Arctic conditions, and there are steps being taken in all countries to renew their icebreaker fleets to enforce environmental protection laws and other regulations. But no-one is envisioning a military conflict. The concern is with policing nonstate actors. This might be shipping companies or international criminal syndicates that see the Arctic as a way of smuggling drugs or illegal immigrants to places further south, or terrorist elements that might seek to utilize the Arctic in some way. So you have things like the recent statement from the Norwegian Government saying that they felt no concern whatsoever at Russia's plans to improve its military capabilities in the north. There is a tendency on the part of some commentators to try to frame this as a new Cold War - but all the relevant governments are actually working successfully together.