Leaked government papers in Copenhagen show officials want to own areas where melting ice is uncovering new shipping routes, fishing grounds and drilling opportunities for oil and gas.The document said Denmark’s Science Ministry has started collecting data to formally submit a claim for those areas to the U.N. no later than 2014.
Russia, Norway and the U.S. have their own claims - sometimes competing - in a region believed to hold as much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas.
The Danish government confirmed the authenticity of the called 'Strategy for the Arctic' document, which was first uncovered by Danish Radio and published online by newspaper Information.
Denmark has for years explored potential claims to areas off Greenland, a semiautonomous territory, but this is the first time the government explicitly states it will make a claim for the North Pole, said Martin Breum, a Danish journalist who has written a book about Denmark’s interests in the Arctic.
Foreign Minister Lene Espersen said the strategy is still being reviewed and a final version is expected in June. However, she affirmed in a statement that Denmark expects to 'be able to lay claim on an area which includes the seabed of the North Pole.'
The race to secure subsurface rights to the Arctic seabed heated up in 2007 when Russia sent two small submarines to plant a tiny national flag under the North Pole. Read More
