The scramble for the Arctic region began at the beginning of the 6th century/kloc-0. In the 1930s, after the Permanent Court of International Justice awarded Greenland to Denmark, most of the land and islands in the Arctic were settled. At present, all the land in the Arctic belongs to eight countries around the Arctic, and the competition between the countries concerned is mainly concentrated in the area around the North Pole, which is recognized as an international sea area.
As early as 1950s, Canada declared that it owned the Arctic, but later the International Court of Justice ruled that the Arctic belonged to Canada only if no other countries raised objections within 100. According to international law, the Arctic and its vicinity do not belong to any country. The International Seabed Authority believes that the Arctic Ocean, which is covered by ice sheets around the Arctic, belongs to international waters. Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway and Denmark, the five countries surrounding the Arctic Ocean, only have exclusive economic zones of 200 nautical miles outside the territorial sea, and the continental shelf of none of them extends to the North Pole.
After entering the 2 1 century, the disputes around the Arctic region have intensified, and neighboring countries such as Canada, Russia, the United States and Denmark have all been involved in this dispute. Denmark planted the national flag on Hans Island demarcated by 1973. Hans Island was deliberately ignored in the treaty. In June 2003, Denmark declared its sovereignty over an Arctic island named Hans, and planted the Danish flag on the island, which was protested by Canada and a new round of Arctic disputes began. Hans Island, about 3 km long and 1 km wide, is located at 80 north latitude. The Nels Strait between Canada and Greenland is only 1000 km from the North Pole.
The two countries disputed the sovereignty of the island, but later both claimed the sovereignty of Hans Island. 1984, Danish Minister of Greenland Affairs Tom Hayem boarded the island by helicopter and raised the Danish flag on the island. Since then, Denmark has planted flags on the island five times to declare its sovereignty. Since there is no icebreaker in Canada, it has been possible to protest verbally for more than 20 years. Canadians believe that Canada should not only issue a voice to safeguard territorial sovereignty, but also take practical actions to defend "territory". As a result, Canada began to work hard to strengthen its military presence in the Arctic. In August 2004, Canada held a military exercise called "Operation Unicorn" in the disputed area of the Arctic to emphasize its military strength in the Arctic. It was not until 2005 that Bill Graham, then Canada's defense minister, set foot on Hans Island, and Denmark immediately sent a strongly worded protest letter to the Canadian government. Since then, as a counterattack, Denmark has once again sent armed fishing boats to Hans Island to confirm its sovereignty.
In September 2004, Denmark declared that the Arctic seamount is a natural extension of the Greenland Ridge, claiming the rights and interests of Arctic resources. Danish Minister of Scientific Research Sander said: "This is an opportunity for Denmark to own the Arctic, which will give us access to oil and natural gas." In order to seize this opportunity, Denmark launched a long-distance scientific expedition to Mount lomonosov and officially declared its ownership of the Arctic. For Denmark's move, Canada, which once claimed sovereignty over the Arctic, naturally refused to give up. A spokesman for the Canadian Foreign Ministry said: "Denmark's challenge is brand new, but it will not change anything." In April 2007, in order to declare its sovereignty over the Arctic, Canada sent troops to patrol the Arctic for the first time and conducted large-scale anti-terrorism military exercises.
Russia, another big country in the Arctic region, has also been plotting against the Arctic for a long time. As early as 200 1, 12, 2 1, Russia submitted to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf an application for a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, involving the outer limits of the Russian continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles in the central Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea and Sea of Okhotsk. However, the Committee believes that the investigation materials and data provided by Russia are insufficient and requires it to re-examine and supplement the evidence. After that, Russia carried out a series of scientific research activities in the Arctic, the purpose of which was to find scientific basis to prove its claim to the Arctic Ocean, the Russian flag at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. On June 25, 2007, Russian geologists announced that they had found evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge, which extends nearly 2,000 kilometers underwater in the Arctic Ocean, is a natural extension of the northern Siberian continent of Russia. According to Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, "the continental shelf of a coastal state includes the seabed and subsoil in the seabed area outside its territorial sea, and extends to the edge of the continental shelf according to the natural extension of its land territory. If the baseline from which the territorial sea width is measured is less than 200 nautical miles outside the continental margin, the continental shelf width can be extended to 200 nautical miles; If it is more than 200 nautical miles to the edge of the continent, it can extend up to 350 nautical miles. " If the Russian proposal is established, it will mean a new continental shelf of 6.5438+0.2 million square kilometers, equivalent to the sum of the territories of France, Germany and Italy.
However, some people soon raised objections to this. On June 27th, 2007, some scientists questioned the findings of the Russian geological team. They said that if a country wants to extend the continental shelf, it must prove that the geological structure of the area is similar to its land territory. Pryamikov, director of the International Cooperation Department of the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Institute in St Petersburg, said, "To be honest, I feel a little strange. Canada can also make exactly the same claim. They can say that the Lomonosov Ridge is connected with the North American continent. Does this mean that Russia and the whole Eurasia are under the jurisdiction of Canada? " Things didn't end there. In August, the Arctic dispute heated up again. On August 2, Russian oceanographers and polar workers first dived into the bottom of the Arctic Ocean more than 4,000 meters deep and planted a Russian flag made of titanium alloy. Of course, just because a country plants a national flag on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean does not mean that the Arctic is its territory. Even if it is proved that its continental shelf extends to the North Pole, it only has the exclusive right to develop seabed resources, not sovereignty. But this move is quite shocking.
The United States, Canada and other countries not only publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with Russia's $4 million action, but also adopted new countermeasures, which can be described as a stone stirring up thousands of waves. On August 6, the US Coast Guard "Healy" heavy icebreaker set off from Seattle Port and went to the North Pole for scientific investigation. Canada claims that it will hold multi-arms military exercises in the Arctic in the near future. On August 10, Canadian Prime Minister Harper announced three decisions aimed at enhancing Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic in Solute Bay, a strategic mine in the Arctic Circle: updating a military facility in Solute Bay to make it a training center for Canadian troops stationed in the Arctic; Expand the armed patrol force there and improve the equipment; Establish an Arctic deepwater port mainly used for military purposes in the town of Nannisvik, baffin island.
Harper stressed that this move is intended to declare to the world: "Canada's presence in the Arctic is real, growing and long-term." On August 12, the Danish expedition also set off from northern Norway for the North Pole. Markussen, the leader of the expedition, said: "We will collect data that is beneficial to national sovereignty."
After a year, Russia once again swung a heavy punch. In September 2008, the Security Council of the Russian Federation approved Russia's national policy framework and long-term planning in the Arctic region before 2020. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said: "This region is of strategic significance, and its development is related to the task of solving the country's long-term development and its competitiveness in the global market."
In March 2009, Canadian scientists went to the Arctic again to collect data. Their main task is to measure the submarine ridge to determine which polar country owns this seabed. With the help of instruments and tools to measure the subtle changes of the earth's gravity field, researchers can draw the clearest picture of the seabed in this area so far, because macroscopic geological structures such as mountains or submarine ridges will make the earth's gravity field fluctuate. Canada hopes to determine which country has sovereignty over the region. This move means that Canada has taken a substantial step towards declaring Arctic sovereignty. In the face of the situation that "the Arctic is full of flags of the King", some media described the "new cold war" as having begun, fearing that any action involving the sovereignty of the Arctic by relevant countries may cause quite a big international storm. At present, the crux of the Arctic problem is that there is no law in the world that clearly stipulates the ownership of the Arctic.