The five countries bordering the Arctic Ocean do not have conflicting positions about the continental nature of the Lomonosov Ridge, leader of the Arctic expeditions of the VNIIOkeangeologia institute Viktor Paselov told Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
-The continental nature of the Lomonosov Ridge is not disputed by the world scientific society, Paselov says. -Of course, the territorial claims touch with eachother and the exact borders need to be agreed on, but there is no fundamental dispute with Denmark and Canada regarding the shelf, he adds.
Denmark claims rights over another part of the Lomonosov Ridge than the Russians, the researcher says. The Russian claims include the socalled Amerasia territory which covers area between the Lomonosov Ridge in the west and the Mendeleev Heights in the east.
As previously reported, Russia in 2011 intends to complete the collection of data on the extention of the countries Arctic shelf and hand in a claim to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2012.
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However, the positions on the belonging of the North Pole point are overlapping. Both Russia and Denmark argue that the area should be included in their respective territories. However, if delineated according to internationally acknowledged medial line, the North Pole point will end up on the Danish side, Poselov admits. He believes an alternative solution on the issue could be the establishment of a 600 km international zone in area of the North Pole.
Danish sovereignty over the North Pole point might be hard to accept by the Russians. Afterall, they put much prestige in the planting of a Russian flag on the North Pole seabed in 2007.
While Russia, Canada and Denmark are still working on claims for the UN shelf commission, Norway in 2009 got its claim approved and thus became the first of the Arctic five to have its Arctic territories delimited.
