Russia Maps Out New Continental Shelf Borders

On Friday the United Nations secretariat officially notified the Russian Ministry for Natural Resources on its having registered an application with proposals on a list of geographic coordinates of points outlining Russia's continents shelf. The ministerial press service said that mapping out of the border of the continental shelf is a crucial geopolitical question for Russia. Its positive solution will seal Russia's sovereign rights for an additional territory (1.2 million square kilometers) of the continental shelf in the Arctic ocean. According to the press service, it will also become possible "to increase Russia's predicted hydrocarbon resources by 4.9 billion tonnes of conventional fuel". Fixing of the new shelf borders will also "expand the base for ensuring Russia's military-strategic and geopolitical interests in the Arctic through establishing jurisdiction and control over activities conducted on the ocean floor and waters above it, which are of defense value", said the press service of the Russian Natural Resources Ministry. The application was filed at the UN commission on continental shelf borders following research and practical work done to substantiate Russia's national interests in mapping out the new continental shelf borders, said the press service.