|
Beaufort Sea looms large Huebert: Arctic claims potentially ‘nastier’ than Northwest Passage dispute Gary Park For Petroleum News
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has set in motion Canada’s plans to militarize its Arctic sovereignty claims amid a gathering Cold War over the region that threatens, among other things, to pit Canada against the United States in a dispute over the Beaufort Sea. (See related U.S./Alaska Arctic story on page 7 of this issue.)
Using language seldom heard from a Canadian leader, Harper said that “defending our sovereignty in the North demands that we maintain the capacity to act.”
By some estimates that could involve billions of dollars to implement Canada’s First Defense Strategy to establish an Arctic Warfare Training Center and base 1,000 soldiers in the region.
But, however Canadians might feel about what they view as a birthright, Arctic claims are just as passionately held by the United States, Russia, Norway and Denmark.
The wakeup jolt for many Canadians occurred in the summer when a Russian submarine planted a flag directly under the North Pole.
The symbolic issue is control over the Northwest Passage, but that is just one of several simmering disputes, as attention shifts to the world’s last and possibly largest untapped oil and gas resources that some believe could exceed those of the Middle East.
Beaufort Sea flashpoint A looming flashpoint involves a conflict between Canada and the United States over the dividing line in the Beaufort Sea.
Rod Huebert, a political scientist and associate director of the Center for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, told a mid-October geoscience conference in Banff, Alberta, there is an unprecedented “state of transformation” in the Arctic.
Of special importance, he said, is a rewriting of the Arctic map, which already has Canada involved in two maritime border disputes — including rival assertions over access to the Northwest Passage — three potential disputes, one waterway dispute and one land dispute.
He said that if the Northwest Passage is to be used for oil and gas shipments it is in Canada’s interests to be first and establish ownership of the waters.
Huebert said that if the U.S. decides to enter those waters it will simply not ask permission.
Even more sensitive is the Beaufort boundary dispute, he said, suggesting that issue will be “much nastier than anything we have seen with the Northwest Passage.”
Canada-U.S. borders differ The disagreement stems from Canada’s extension of its Beaufort boundary from the land border between Alaska and the Yukon, while the United States draws a line at a 90-degree angle from its coastline — both of which have been found acceptable under international law.
Huebert said that if the U.S. method were upheld it would cost Canada potential oil and gas reserves and force renegotiation of aboriginal land claims granted to the Inuvialuit in the Western Arctic.
He noted that the U.S. has already included parcels in the disputed area for oil and gas licenses, although none have been issued.
While Canada is flexing its muscles, some legal experts worry that sending the military into the Arctic could see Canada encroach into territory that is not legally its own.
They are urging the Harper government to pursue a course of diplomacy and operate through the United Nations, whose Law of the Sea Treaty is intended to divide up the continental shelf.
Once Canada, the U.S., Russia and Denmark have ratified the treaty they will have 10 years to make their scientific claims.
To that end, Harper has committed to undertaking the most comprehensive mapping yet of the Arctic seabed to support Canada’s claims.
Michael Byers, an international law professor at the University of British Columbia, told the Globe and Mail he welcomes Harper’s expansion of his previous military-based emphasis on Arctic sovereignty into social and economic development matters, indicating the prime minister recognizes the issue is multidimensional.
| 