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Moscow claims the north pole

Supposedly down-and-out Russia shocked everyone by staking an audacious claim to a large swathe of the Arctic Ocean which experts say may contain up to 25 per cent of global oil and gas reserves.

The Artic pack ice has been melting rapidly due to global warming produced by over-use of fossil fuels. This, ironically, is opening the Arctic to new energy exploration and maritime commerce.

Usually unsmiling President Vladimir Putin must have been grinning from ear to ear as he watched the outraged reaction to his polar adventure in Canada, the US, Norway and Denmark, all of whom have been hungrily eying the high Arctic.

The Kremlin claims its Siberian continental shelf extends to the North Pole along a long underwater ridge named after the renowned 18th century Russian scientist, Lomonosov. International law grants maritime nations a 200-mile economic exclusion zone off their coasts. Moscow insists the North Pole is really just an extension of northern Siberia.

The normally reserved Canadians are furious the Russians had the audacity to make even a symbolic claim to the polar region which they consider their own. Canada wants to advance its own Arctic claims, but, embarrassingly, lacks the icebreakers, patrol vessels, long-ranged aircraft and bases to defend or even police them. New Canadian icebreakers and patrol vessels are still on the drawing boards.

“This isn't the 15th century!” exclaimed Canada's Foreign Minister Peter MacKay. “Nations can't claim territory by just planting flags.” But that, of course, is just what happened. Under international law, a nation can indeed plant its flag and make a claim on vacant territory.

Washington's reaction was also angry, and bizarre. A US icebreaker is being rushed at -high speed from the Pacific port of Seattle to the North Pole. Administration officials fretted the fabled Arctic Northwest Passage might be used to transport terrorists.' While 200,000 illegal aliens slip into the US from Mexico each month the Bush Administration worries about al-Qaida lurking behind icebergs.

Actually, the Russians have solid historic claims to the Arctic. Only the Norse Vikings have been active there longer. As early as 1032 AD, Russians explored the Kara Sea off northern Siberia and, soon after, the White and Lapatev Seas only 700 km south of the North Pole. In the 1600's, major Russian expeditions charted the Arctic. Under Peter the Great, Russia opened the Arctic Seas to commerce and made Alaska a colony.

Moscow vows to observe international law and advance its Arctic claims through the UN. Fair enough. It's refreshing to see a great power observing international law. Moscow could have adopted the Bush Administration's excuse for grabbing Iraq's oil, claiming it was occupying the North Pole to find weapons of mass destruction hidden there by rogue seals.

This whole Arctic story certainly has comical elements and is a refreshing diversion to this summer's heat waves. But it is also very serious, as conflicts over dwindling resources will grow increasingly common in the next decade. Moscow's territorial claim is way over the top and the wrong way to deal with what is becoming the very important and potentially dangerous issue of Arctic resources.

There's a much better method to handle this potential gold rush. The entire, oval-shaped Arctic zone surrounded by the 200-mile limits of Canada, the US, Norway, and Denmark should become a special UN economic zone. Any nation seeking to drill or mine in this region should buy concessions from the UN and pay it royalties that will be used to fund humanitarian and ecological projects.

Regions in which maritime exclusion zones overlap — such as off Greenland, the Bering Strait, Norway's Savalbard, Russia's Franz Josef Land, Greek and Turkish Aegean islands, the South China Seas' contested Paracel and Spratly islands should also become UN-run special economic zones, or, like Antarctica, international territory.

It's called sharing, a grown-up way to resolve global resource disputes.

Eric S. Margolis is a veteran American journalist and contributing foreign editor of The Toronto Sun.