UN CLCS approves Russia’s Arctic seabed submission
© RIA Novosti. Vera Kostamo

UN CLCS approves Russia’s Arctic seabed submission

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) has released a 63-page summary, which states that Russia has received approving recommendations for most of its claims to seabed rights in the central Arctic Ocean. This is approximately 1.7 million square kilometers of seabed, according to a document on the UN website.

The commission’s recommendations will not be the last word in the discussion about Arctic seabed rights, but the panel of experts has validated most of Russia’s claims.

It is worth noting that Russia’s claims extend from the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation across the North Pole to the exclusive economic zones of Canada and Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

At the same time, in the seas north of the Bering Strait and Alaska, Russia’s claims stop at a straight line defined by a separate agreement with the United States from 1990, which delimits the territorial sea and the continental shelf between the two countries.