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Sunday 05.02.2012

A "carve-up" deal?

Ministers from Russia, the United States, Norway, Denmark and Canada promise to abide by the 1982 Law of the Sea.

Environmentalists denounced as a territorial "carve-up" a deal signed by five Arctic nations seeking to resolve competing claims for control of the polar region, reports the Guardian.



The agreement was signed in Greenland on Wednesday by ministers from Russia, the United States, Norway, Denmark and Canada.

The declaration said that all five nations would abide by the 1982 Law of the Sea, which determines territorial claims according to coastlines and undersea continental shelves.

"We will take steps in accordance with international law... to ensure the protection and the preservation of the fragile environment of the Arctic Ocean," said the declaration.

"We intend to work together, including through the International Maritime Organization, to strengthen existing measures and to develop new measures to improve the safety of maritime navigation and prevent or reduce the risk of ship-based pollution in the Arctic Ocean," it added.

Thomas Winkler, head of the international law department in the Danish foreign ministry, told the Guardian that "the main point is that the five coastal states have sent a very clear political signal to everybody that we will manage the Arctic responsibly, that we have the international rules necessary and we will all abide by those rules."

But environmentalists said the closed-door meeting paved the way for a land grab by countries who have claims to the continental shelf at the pole.

Iceland, Finland and Sweden, who are part of the Arctic Council group of nations, but who do not have similar territorial claims were excluded, as were environmental groups and Inuit, notes the Guardian.

"It's clear what's going on. 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," said Mike Townsley, a Greenpeace International spokesman.

"The closed door nature of this is doubly troubling. It's clear they know what they're trying to do is unacceptable."

Environmentalists would like to see the Arctic protected by the same sort of treaty that applies to the Antarctic, which prevents drilling or military activity.

However, the Norwegian foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Støe, argued that further international regulatory agreements were unnecessary.

"Those that say there is a legal vacuum in the Arctic are wrong because the UN law of the sea convention prevails in the Arctic as it does in other oceans," he said.

Critics of the meeting also questioned the inclusion of the U.S., which has not ratified the law of the sea.

The declaration also included an agreement to cooperate in the event of marine accidents.