Foreign Ministry assesses the possibility of Russian shelf expansion in the Arctic
Nikolai Korchunov, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry and Russia's Senior Arctic Official at the Arctic Council, said that Russia has a good chance of expanding its shelf in the Arctic.
“The expansion of the Russian shelf is very likely. Russia submitted a claim, which is under review by the relevant agencies and committees that consider such applications within the UN. It is too early to say [about the timing – ed.],” he said during a news conference dedicated to Polar Explorer's Day.
As the diplomat previously reported, Russia filed a claim with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2015. The application concerns underwater territories with an area of over one million square kilometers, including the Lomonosov Ridge, the Podvodnikov Basin, the Mendeleev Rise, the North Pole zone and the southern tip of the Gakkel Ridge.