The acquired States expanded their claims to additional resources, the ocean floor and the territory of the continental shelf in Arctic, what It doubles the size of California. In this way, Washington is trying to preserve reserves of bark copalins, which are essential for the development of future technologies.
This is reported by RBC-Ukraine via Bloomberg.
So the title of “extension of the continental shelf” is sought after. approximately 1 million square kilometers (386,100 square miles), important in the Arctic and Bering Sea – a strategic zone also claimed by Canada and Russia. In addition, the United States has designated cordons to the shelf in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mexican continents.
The long-term decision affected the map of the outer boundaries of the American continental shelf, the land territory of the region under the sea. Under international law, countries have economic rights to natural resources on and below the seabed within their continental shelves.
Map: US Department of State via Bloomberg
Professor of international maritime law at the US Navy and Maritime College James Kraska noted that the US continental shelf contains 50 solid bark copalin, zocrema lithium and telurium, as well as 16 rare earth elements.
Bloomberg predicts that the US Geological Survey's latest 2008 estimate estimates that there are nearly 90 billion barrels of undiscovered petroleum reserves and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered petroleum reserves behind the Polar Stake. and in gas, and also necessary for the electrification of critical metals. At the same time, most of these estimates are based on observations on land, and the potential of the shelf may not be calculated.
What should we say about maritime law
The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the United States has not yet ratified, regulates maritime zones near the edges. According to the document, the countries have the right to any resources in the sea or on the sea day between their so-called exclusive economic zones, which can extend up to 200 nautical miles for protection.
In addition, edges may claim economic rights to resources on the seabed or below it, where the continental shelf extends, although not within the water body. The seas above them will also be deprived of international waters.
Russia, Denmark and Canada have warned that their controversial claims to the Arctic seabed will be reviewed by the Commission on the Intercontinental Shelf, a group supported by the UN. At the beginning of 2023, Russia made decisions first.
The State Department has announced that in the near future the United States will establish maritime cordons with Canada, the Bahamas and Japan, where their claims will continue. The department added that the United States will adopt similar rules for the designation of its extended continental shelf, as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted under the administration of Joe Biden.
Director of Polar Institute at the Wilson Center Rebekah Pincus It means that it has decided to unilaterally designate the borders of its continental shelf, instead of ratifying UNCLOS and then submitting an application, it may cause state dissatisfaction with other countries.
In her opinion, this also changes the likelihood that the United States will ever ratify the Convention. For this time, for this time, for the shutty, control over the bottom, the biades of the Kho -Komi Khwani Kordonov continental shelf (CLCS). The first intercessor of the head of the Committee for the Federation of Russia for International Affairs, Volodymyr Dzhabarov, stated that the Russian Federation also lays claim to this part of the shelf and is ready to pursue its interests.
“Russia is obliged to react harshly. Because all the countries that may have relations with the Arctic region are to blame for their equal rights. We (USA – ed.) and so at the right time (in 1990) acted, they are completely thoughtless to the new decision of Shevardnadze ( Eduard Shevardnadze, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR from 1985 to 1990 – ed.), the great shelf. The appetite comes at every hour. No matter what they lay claim to. Russia has exactly the same rights as the Americans, but no more.” , – said Dzhabarov.
The struggle for control over Arctic resources
Experts have repeatedly indicated that in the future Russia and the Sun will be rich in Arctic resources. For a long time, this region of the world has been on the sidelines of geopolitics, rather than climate change, this region of the planet will become more attractive from an economical point of view.
Zokrema, Russia is considering the possibility of vicinity the eternal sea route for delivering goods to Asia. This route can reduce the delivery hour by 40% from the Suez Canal. However, delivery through thick ice and frost creates serious problems.
2 November 2023 The United States imposed sanctions on the Arctic LNG-2 project – a project of the Novatek company with the production of natural gas and the production of bottled natural gas at Gidansky pivostrovi (on the other side of the Obska Bay near Yamal).
Gas supplies from the Russian Arctic LNG-2 project are subject to US sanctions. The operator company of the project announced force majeure circumstances.
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