Canada claims vast areas including North Pole
In December the federal government of Canada submitted two claims with the United Nation Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, although the scientific evidence to back its claim is iffy as yet. The final application for the Atlantic adds 1.2 million square kilometers to the east coast offshore boundaries and includes the North Pole. The preliminary claim is about 1.75 million square kilometers – territory the size of Alaska. Some Canadian scientists say the North Pole is a long shot. But Canadian media reported that Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally insisted the North Pole be included in any new claim even though the scientific evidence put Canada's boundary just south of it. The Arctic has been a popular domestic issue for the head of the government, who has talked of his country's northern national identity. The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is tasked with evaluating claims like Canada's that expand beyond those boundaries. We are securing our sovereignty, we are expanding our scope, our economic and scientific opportunities, we are defining Canada's last frontiers», said Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq.
Symbolically a winter warfare center in Nunavut finally opened this past summer. The command post in Resolute Bay can handle up to 100 soldiers at a time training for cold-weather operations. The training center will provide a permanent footprint in a strategic location that will allow for staging and force projection across the high Arctic. The facility will enable training and routine operations by providing a location to pre-position equipment and vehicles, and can also serve as a command post for emergency operations and disaster response in support of civilian authorities. The Canadian Army (CA) is the lead agency for developing the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Arctic Training Center (ATC). The CA remains committed to conducting operations and exercises in the Arctic to preserve and enhance their ability to operate in that region. The CAF ATC will accommodate training for Canadian Rangers, Arctic Company Response Groups, the Arctic Operations Advisor Course, search and rescue, CA sovereignty operations, and CAF joint exercises. The CAF ATC will allow the CA to generate sufficient forces at an appropriate level of readiness for force employment to help meet the range of objectives and contingencies specified by the Government of Canada. Further, as a joint CAF facility, the CAF ATC will host two Royal Canadian Air Force courses: the first by the Canadian Forces School of Search and Rescue; and the second by the Canadian Forces School of Survival and Aeromedical Training.
It has been recently reported that the Canadian military has been secretly test-driving a $620,000 stealth snowmobile in its quest to quietly whisk troops on clandestine operations in the Arctic. The Canadian Press has learned that soldiers have taken the new hybrid-electric snowmobile prototype on trial runs to evaluate features such as speed, noise level, battery endurance and acceleration.
The evolution in Canadian-American bilateral military relations in the Arctic follows an ongoing pattern of Arctic change. On December 11, 2012, the U.S. and Canada signed the Tri-Command Framework for Arctic Cooperation which will further integrate United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). According to a press release, the framework is designed to, «promote enhanced military cooperation in the Arctic and identify specific areas of potential Tri-Command cooperation in the preparation for and conduct of safety, security and defense operations». USNORTHCOM, CJOC and NORAD will work more closely in the region with regards to planning, domain awareness, information-sharing, training and exercises, operations, capability development, as well as in the area of science and technology. This also ties in with the Tri-Command Training and Exercise Statement of Intent. The Arctic is also an emerging issue for the NATO alliance. Canada and the U.S., along with other NATO member countries have participated in the annual Cold Response war games.
Russia
At an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry Board on December 10 President Putin asked them to pay «particular attention to the deployment of infrastructure and military units in the Arctic». He thanked the defence staff for re-opening this summer an old Soviet airbase abandoned 20 years ago on the Novosibirsk Islands in the high Arctic. This year, Russia has also started restoring its Arctic airfields including one called «Temp» on Kotelny Island near the city of Norilsk. It is also overhauling urban facilities in Tiksi, Naryan-Mar, and Anadyr. More air bases would follow, he said, in Tiksi and Severomorsk… Russia will create forces in the Arctic in 2014 to ensure military security and protect the country’s national interests in the region, which President Vladimir Putin has named among the government’s top priorities. Russia is returning to the Arctic and «intensifying the development of this promising region» so it needs to «have all the levers for the protection of its security and national interests», the President said. He ordered the Defense Ministry to complete the formation of new military units and infrastructure in the Arctic next year. «I would like you to devote special attention to deploying infrastructure and military units in the Arctic», the President said in televised remarks. «The country requires every lever for the protection of its security and national interests there», Putin said for the cameras. Russia is set to continue the revival of other Russian northern airfields as well as docks on the New Siberian Islands and the Franz Josef Land archipelago, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said, speaking at the meeting. «There are plans to create a group of troops and forces to ensure military security and protection of the Russian Federation's national interests in the Arctic in 2014», Shoigu confirmed. Shoigu said that at least seven mothballed military airfields on the continental part of the Arctic Circle will also be restored.
Back in September, Russia announced it was resuming its permanent Arctic military presence. It sent 10 warships and nuclear-powered icebreakers along the Northern Sea Route. This is a shipping lane between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, which runs from the Russian northern port city of Murmansk, along Siberia and the Far East.
During a meeting with Moscow State University students in Moscow on December 3, Putin was asked whether Russia and other countries might loosen their grip on Arctic territory for military exercises and exploitation of natural resources in favor of environmental preservation. The Russian leader replied that the United States hasn't slipped off the ice shelf and implied that his country's national defense priorities will continue to outweigh conservation efforts. «Experts know quite well that it takes U.S. missiles 15 to 16 minutes to reach Moscow from the Barents Sea», Putin said…
A UN convention says no one can claim jurisdiction over the Arctic seabed because the geological structure does not match the surrounding continental shelves. But Russian scientists have returned from a six-week mission on a nuclear ice-breaker to claim that the 1,220-mile long underwater Lomonosov Ridge is geologically linked to the Siberian continental platform – and similar in structure. The region is currently administered by the International Seabed Authority but this is now being challenged by Moscow. A wide scale research effort is launched to complete the research by 2015 as recommended by the UN Commission. This time Moscow plans to make a far more serious submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
Experts believe that Russia's rights to these areas of the continental shelf are unconditional from a scientific point of view, but once again politics could interfere due to U.S. influence on international organizations. Russia's entry into a new initiative to control and reduce emissions of carbon, methane and other pollutants, which occurred after the G8 summit at Camp David, satisfied environmentalists who believe that this will help to protect the Arctic nature.
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The only way the Arctic nations can effectively maintain safety and regional order is to cooperate with one another. A closely coordinated regional approach to Arctic governance under the framework of the Law of the Sea Convention will build confidence and deepen regional stability. Multilateral security cooperation is the only way to reduce the risk of conflict.
