Arctic key to economic future, Russia claims
Randy Boswell
Canwest News Service
Thursday, September 18, 2008
OTTAWA -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev directed his top Kremlin officials to develop a comprehensive and assertive strategy to exploit the region's vast Arctic frontier -- including the demarcation of boundaries and the exploiting of polar resources -- echoing a key message of the Conservative government's re-election campaign.
Initial reports of Medvedev's address to Russia's national security council suggested he was advocating unilateral action to secure Arctic territory at a time when the five polar nations -- including Canada -- are collecting geological data for planned sea floor territorial claims under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
But a translation of the speech provided to Canwest News Service by the Russian embassy in Ottawa suggests a less provocative presidential vision, but one filled with ambition to make the Arctic key to Russia's economic future.
"Our biggest task now is to turn the Arctic into Russia's resource base for the 21st century," Medvedev said.
"Reaching this goal requires us first to resolve a whole number of specific issues," he added. "The main issue is that of reliably protecting our national interests in the region. We need a solid legal and regulatory framework for our activities in the Arctic. We need, above all, to finalize and adopt the federal law on the Russian Arctic zone's southern border. A treaty fixing in law our external border on the continental shelf is also on the upcoming agenda. This is a very important task."
Medvedev then told the security council: "I stress that this is our obligation and quite simply our duty to our descendants. We must ensure reliable protection in the long term for Russia's national interests in the Arctic."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made his government's record on asserting Canada's territorial interests in the North a key plank in the Conservative election strategy. But opposition parties have denounced Tory policies for being too focused on military expressions of sovereignty and exploiting resources and too silent on the impacts of climate change -- including the record Arctic ice retreat -- and on social issues confronting Canada's Inuit.
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