The United States is trying to expand its borders in the Arctic without legitimate grounds, said Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Konstantin Kosachev.

"Today, the Americans are acting without any international legal basis at all, which means that the international community has every right not to recognize the new borders," Kosachev wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to him, despite the fact that "such an option" as strengthening claims to the continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean is indeed provided for by international law, "the Americans have done it from an international legal point of view, as they say, "dirty."

Kosachev explained that the expansion of borders in the Arctic is possible if "the state proves that there is an underwater extension of the mainland beyond 200 miles from the baselines." And other countries, such as Russia, Canada and Denmark, have been "waiting years for their claims" to the Arctic shelf to be reviewed by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, he added.

"The mandate of the Commission is based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Article 8(76)). Russia, as a responsible party to the Convention, fully complies with its provisions, which prescribe sending applications for an increase in the shelf to the Commission. By the way, the last time Russia received positive recommendations from the commission to increase its shelf in the Arctic was in February 2023. This work continues now," the Vice Speaker said.

However, the United States has not yet ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea "and in a sense is a pariah among all the maritime powers that are parties to the Convention," but refers to it, Kosachev stressed.

"In other words, when it is not profitable for the Americans, they do not obey its norms, and when it is advantageous, they apply it as customary international law. But this time, the Americans have outdone themselves, ignoring the interests of even their allies in the Arctic. Now the U.S. has a territorial dispute with Canada and Japan over the delimitation of the shelf," he said.

Earlier, the US authorities published official maps of the extended continental shelf, which begins beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast in the Arctic, the Atlantic, the Bering Sea, the Pacific Ocean, two parts of the Gulf of Mexico and off the Mariana Islands. As follows from the explanation of the State Department, the boundaries of the extended continental shelf determined by the United States do not create territorial disputes with Russia, but will require a settlement with Canada and Japan.

"The U.S. Extended Continental Shelf overlaps with the Extended Continental Shelf zones of Canada, the Bahamas and Japan. In the future, the United States and its neighbors will need to establish maritime boundaries in these areas. In other areas, the U.S. has already established the boundaries of the extended continental shelf with its neighbors, including Cuba, Mexico and Russia," the State Department said in an explanation on its website.

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In a press release, the agency notes that the territory of the extended continental shelf of the United States is "about 1 million square kilometers" and is located in seven regions.

"This marine area is home to many resources (e.g. corals, crabs) and vital habitats for marine organisms. The State Department has led the effort to expand the continental shelf with the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Task Force, an interagency agency of the U.S. government consisting of 14 agencies," the State Department said in a statement.

It is also noted that the United States "defines the boundaries" of its extended continental shelf in accordance with "customary international law, as reflected in the relevant provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea" and the Scientific and Technical Guidelines of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Unilaterally

Washington's unilateral decision to expand its borders in the Arctic could lead to increased tensions in the region, said Nikolai Kharitonov, head of the State Duma Committee on the Arctic. According to him, first of all, it is necessary to prove the geological affiliation of these territories to the United States, as Russia once did.

"At that time, a scientific apparatus was lowered under water, subsoil research was carried out. A large evidence base was collected. And ours (Russia. — RT) the application for the shelf was considered by a UN subcommission," he said in an interview with RIA Novosti, adding that the United States has not ratified the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Recall that the vain attempts to ratify this 1982 convention were made by the administration of Barack Obama back in 2012. However, this was prevented by Republicans in the Senate, who said that the document allegedly infringed on the national sovereignty of the United States.

As noted by Evgeny Semibratov, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, lecturer at the Znanie Society, without looking back at the lack of ratification of the 1982 convention, the American authorities decided to expand the "zone of global political escalation" in the Arctic.

"The negative reaction in Russia to the unilateral steps of the United States is more than justified. The Russian Federation has been in the process of defending its interests in the Arctic since at least the early 2000s. And this is due to the policy of strengthening the borders of the Russian Federation. The U.S. decided everything unilaterally, resorting to an international document that it has not ratified only to the extent that it is beneficial to them," Semibratov said in a comment to RT.

According to him, the United States does not even intend to prove the right to expand its borders in the Arctic, as Russia did.

"They want to enlarge their territories just by the fact of their statement about it. But whether they succeed in the end or not depends on the reaction of the international community. However, it is worth remembering that in the Arctic, most of the countries are American allies. That is, there is a very high probability that they will simply swallow this fact and the Americans will really be able to expand the continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean," Semibratov said.

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Washington needs to expand its borders in the Arctic, since the Arctic region is rich in natural resources and is of great strategic importance, the analyst believes.

"Crude oil, metal ores and other natural resources are what the U.S. is after as it expands its shelf in the Arctic. Moreover, sooner or later, the Americans may approach the issue of the "international status" of the Northern Sea Route, and in the future, try to lay claim to the natural resources that are located in Russian territorial waters," Semibratov said.

Reconnaissance in Combat

According to Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute of the United States and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Washington believes that a serious confrontation between the United States and Russia may arise in the Arctic for a number of other reasons. The first of them, the analyst said, was the fact that in the process of global warming, an "extremely important economic route" from Asia to Europe could pass through the Arctic.

"A kind of alternative to the southern route through the Pacific, Indian Oceans and the Red Sea, in which not everything is calm now due to the aggravation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In the context of this, the Americans are now concerned about their borders in the Arctic because of the instability in the Middle East," Vasilyev said in a conversation with RT.

According to him, over time, military-technical rivalry may arise in the region, but even now Russia has a "powerful position" on this track.

"In particular, we are talking about the fleet of Russian icebreakers, which the United States practically does not have, and this is a significant advantage for the Russian Federation. Especially considering that the Arctic is becoming an important zone of conflict between the interests of Washington and Moscow," Vasilyev explained.

However, as the analyst emphasized, it is important to understand that after Finland's accession to NATO and the possible accession of Sweden to the bloc, the United States will more actively use these Scandinavian countries to counter Russia in the Arctic.

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"The problem of deploying the US military at bases in Finland, and possibly later in Sweden, will also be relevant. This is already a form of struggle between the Russian Federation and the United States for the Arctic region. The Americans will advance their interests or the interests of the collective West by relying on force rather than international agreements. And the expansion of the American borders is a kind of zeroing and reconnaissance in combat," Vasilyev concluded.