GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
THE ARCTIC AS A ‘VOID’ During history, people made several attempts to claim particular pieces of the land. Now the dominant trend in the Arctic is clear. Global warming pushes back the Arctic ice cap what gives the chance to develop new shipping routes9 and offshore petroleum mining10. As a consequence, several states try to claim parts of the sea in the north pole that are melting. In 2007 Arthur Chillingarov, an Armenian-Russian polar explorer planted a flag on the Arctic seabed with the words ‘The Arctic is Russian.’ As a reaction, the Canadian foreign minister Peter Mackay responded; ‘During the 15th century, it was common to use this method to claim territory, but now the situation differs’. This reaction came too fast since the intention of the flag-planting wasn’t about claiming the territory, it was more a symbolic statement, just as the flag-planting on the moon of the US in 1969. Thus, the flag-planting here was a statement to show that the Russian scientists are on the front of the technological shift. Still, the act of planting a flag indicates expansionism, not exploration, and in this way, brings new political negotiations into view. As a response to the dispute, the Danish government invited the surrounding Arctic ocean states to Greenland in 2008. There the four countries (Canada, Russia, Denmark, Norway) signed the Illulisat declaration11, in which they agreed on working together within an existing framework of international law.XXIV XXV The reaction from the Canadian minister shows that today the situation to claim land differs from the one in history. In the past, it was possible to claim a territory if this land was untended, uncivilized, and uncultivated.XXVI Now, this isn’t the case anymore. Justification of land claims depend on scientific findings. These findings are legalised within the EEZ. The problem in the Arctic is that claims are overlapping, and so these zones aren’t clearly defined yet.XXVII
16
