Canada latest to make claim for North Pole

Published 2:01 pm Thursday, August 9, 2007

TORONTO — Canada’s prime minister began a three-day trip to the Arctic on Wednesday in an effort to assert sovereignty over the region a week after Russia symbolically staked a claim to the North Pole by sending submarines.

Although Stephen Harper’s visit has been planned for months, it has taken on new importance since the Russian subs dove 2½ miles to the Arctic shelf and planted their country’s flag in a titanium capsule.

“The Russians sent a submarine to drop a small flag at the bottom of the ocean. We’re sending our prime minister to reassert Canadian sovereignty,” a senior government official said on condition of anonymity because his language was undiplomatic.

Five countries — the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway and Denmark — are competing to secure subsurface rights to the Arctic seabed. One study by the U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic has as much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas.

Harper, who has pledged to spend billions defending Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic, is expected to announce the location of a planned military deep-water port later in the week.

Last month, Harper announced that six to eight new patrol ships will be built to guard the Northwest Passage sea route in the Arctic, which the U.S. insists does not belong to Canada.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins has criticized Harper’s promise to defend the Arctic, calling the Northwest Passage “neutral waters.” The Northwest Passage runs below the North Pole from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic archipelago.

The Kremlin also is moving to reassert itself in warmer climes, plotting the return of the Russian fleet to a Syrian port on the Mediterranean Sea.

The head of the Russian navy announced Tuesday that he wanted next to plant the white-blue-and-red Russian banner in the Middle East. The new Russian strategy envisions returning warships to a Soviet-era naval base at the port of Tartus.

It would mark the first time Russia has established a military presence outside the borders of the former Soviet Union since the USSR fell apart in 1991.