Chukotka is far, Alaska is close
Check seven places
The Russian side recently expressed a demarche to the United States due to Washington’s illegal attempts to unilaterally change the external boundaries of the continental shelf in seven regions of the World Ocean.
The Russian Foreign Ministry recalled that from March 18 to 29 in Kingston (Jamaica) a session of the council of the international seabed committee is being held, designed, in accordance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to regulate the activities of “in the deep seabed in areas not subject to the national jurisdiction of coastal States.”
During the session, the Russian delegation, as noted in a statement from the Foreign Ministry, announced “non-recognition of the external boundaries of the continental shelf beyond 2023 nautical miles from the baselines declared by the United States in December 200 unilaterally.”
From these boundaries, as is known, “the width of the territorial sea in seven regions of the World Ocean is measured.” Earlier, a demarche was sent to the American side along a bilateral line. Let us note in this regard that the United States has not ratified the ILC.
Now you can no longer buy or sell
This position literally gives them a free hand for the mentioned actions in relation to maritime borders. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the United States, through its actions, is trying to unilaterally reduce the area of the seabed under the jurisdiction of the entire world community.
And thereby acquire “additional shelf areas - at least 1 million square meters. km - for your own use." Therefore, these actions “do not comply with the rules and procedures established by international law.”
Accordingly, the Russian side “rejected Washington’s next attempts to use the norms of the 1982 Convention to serve its own interests.”
Announce Shevardnadze's list
Let us recall in this regard that, thanks to the well-known Baker-Shevardnadze Treaty (1990), the United States gained control of the Bering Basin and the Arctic Chukchi Sea:
– part (25%) of the exclusive economic zone of the USSR with an area of 23,7 thousand km², which the Americans have claimed since 1977;
– part of the exclusive economic zone of the USSR with an area of 7,7 thousand km²;
- a 46,3 thousand km² section of the continental shelf in the open central part of the Bering Sea, located beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines.
At the same time, the section of the continental shelf that ceded to the USSR-Russian Federation in this part of the Bering Basin amounted to only 4,6 thousand km²: this, we emphasize, is 74 thousand km² of shelf less than it should be with the traditional, according to the ILC, delimitation along the median line .
Enviable pace
Is it any wonder that the United States very quickly ratified this document - already in 1990. The document was not ratified in the USSR-RF, but was de facto put into effect in the same year...
American claims to new maritime borders, which have been put forward for many years, include, among other things, most of the southern sector of the Bering Sea and the eastern sector of the Chukchi Sea.
But it is through this part of the Bering sector that the Northern Sea Route is connected with the Pacific Ocean and, accordingly, with the Pacific ports of the Russian Federation.
Yes, considerable reserves of oil and gas have been explored in areas of this basin contested by the United States, but the United States has plenty of them near Alaska and in Alaska itself, as well as on the shelf of the Aleutian Islands adjacent to this state.
Moreover, since the second half of the 1970s, these bins in Alaska, or more precisely, a significant part of them, have been very actively developed by the Americans. The powerful Trans-Alaska oil pipeline has been operating there and since the same period.
It is very significant that a parallel LNG pipeline will soon be built there (see map). That is why it is quite reasonable to assume that the main task of Washington, which puts forward the mentioned claims, is, in fact, to block the Pacific route of the Northern Sea Route.
And a smoke screen
But these claims in themselves are nothing more than a disguise or a smoke screen. Moreover, the very fact of putting forward these claims can negatively affect the more active use of this artery by countries friendly to the Russian Federation in the Pacific basin and adjacent East Asia.
To put the situation in a broader context, back in April 2018, Admiral Paul Zukunft, Commander of the US Coast Guard, stated:
“...The United States believes that the Northern Sea Route should be a transport artery open to the entire world community.”
Although, in his own words, “There is currently no established plan to conduct freedom of navigation exercises in the area.”
One gets the impression that, taking into account the above-mentioned US claims, such a plan is either ready by now or is already being developed at an accelerated pace.
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