COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Five countries with competing claims to the Arctic agreed Wednesday that control of the region where the polar melt is expected to free up hugely valuable resources will be decided in an orderly way.
The nations surrounding the Arctic signed a declaration that "creates a good political framework for a peaceful development in the Arctic Ocean in the future,'' said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller who co-hosted a meeting in Greenland.
At stake may be large amounts of fossil fuels. A U.S. study suggests the region may hold 25 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.
Canada's Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, the foreign ministers of Denmark, Norway and Russia, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte gathered in Ilulissat, 250 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, for the conference on the Arctic.
While no claims were on the agenda, the countries involved reaffirmed their commitment to international treaties governing the region.
"The five nations have now declared that they will follow the rules,'' Moeller said. "We have hopefully quelled all myths about a race for the North Pole once and for all.''
Interest in the region is intensifying because global warming is shrinking the polar ice, and that could someday open up resource development and new shipping lanes.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying he did not "share any alarming forecasts of an expected confrontation between the interests of the Arctic states and the nations beyond the region, a future `battle for the Arctic Ocean'.''
"We firmly believe that all questions arising here should be solved in a civilized manner on the basis of international law through negotiations,'' Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax agency.
A UN panel is supposed to decide on control of the Arctic by 2020.
Moeller co-hosted the meeting with Hans Enoksen, the premier of Greenland, which is a semiautonomous Danish territory.
Other topics on the agenda included the marine environment, maritime safety and division of emergency responsibilities if new shipping routes open up as the polar ice cap melts due to global warming.
Last year, Canada's Conservative government announced plans to acquire up to eight Arctic patrol ships and to build an army base in Resolute Bay and a naval station in Nanisivik.
"We're rebuilding our military in a way we have not seen for a long time. We are making a strong case and a strong presence in the North,'' Lunn told The Canadian Press before leaving for Ilulissat.
Michael Byers, professor of global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia, said Ottawa should pay closer attention to co-operation with its Arctic neighbours and not engage in "conflict and heated rhetoric.''
Byers said Canada cannot back up strong words with the hardware needed to assert sovereignty in the North.
Byers and other critics say Canada's surveillance and control of the North falls short, even with Ottawa's recent plans for a bigger military presence.
Norway, the United States, Denmark and Russia also have claims in the vast region.
Denmark is gathering scientific evidence to show that the Lomonosov Ridge, a 2,000-kilometre underwater mountain range, is attached to Greenland, making it a geological extension of the island.
Under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Arctic countries have 10 years after ratification to prove their claims under the largely uncharted polar ice pack. All countries with claims to the Arctic have ratified the treaty, with the exception of the United States.
President George W. Bush has been pushing the U.S. Senate to ratify the treaty.
The Law of the Sea, concluded in 1982 and in force since 1994, would give the United States "a seat at the table'' when rights over natural resources are debated, Bush said in October. Opponents say that the agreement would impinge on U.S. military and economic sovereignty.
With files from The Canadian Press
