Translated material
We don't pretend to be icebergs
Sergei Lavrov discusses the Arctic
Today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will discuss in the town of Ilulissat (translated into Russian as “icebergs”) in the Greenland Arctic, the problem of delimiting economic interests in the Arctic, where hydrocarbon deposits are estimated at a quarter of the world’s undiscovered reserves. His interlocutors will be colleagues from Denmark, Canada, Norway and the USA. The meeting was initiated by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (this country represents the interests of EU countries seeking access to the riches of the Arctic among the five Arctic states) and the government of Greenland.Yesterday, Mr. Lavrov tried to reassure his colleagues in advance. He said in Copenhagen that the installation of the Russian flag on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean in the summer of 2007 does not mean that Russia is laying claim to these underwater lands: “We have no claims to the territory and cannot have them, since there is a convention on the law of the sea, a mechanism for implementing this convention, including with regard to the continental shelf. This mechanism is clearly and appropriately implemented by the Russian Federation, as well as by other countries.”
But if Russia proves its rights to the shelf in this area, it will be able to lay claim to an additional 1.2 million square meters. km of a large hydrocarbon deposit. Vladislav Belov, director of the Center for German Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Vremya Novostei: “The question is about gaining access to territories that were previously considered international. Naturally, the EU would also like to gain access to these resources within the framework of international regulation of this problem.”
Sergei Lavrov arrived in Ilulissat yesterday from Copenhagen. He had an audience with the Queen of Denmark, met with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and held negotiations with Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller. Yesterday, the heads of diplomatic departments signed bilateral agreements on simplifying the procedure for issuing visas and on readmission. This, Mr. Lavrov is confident, will “significantly simplify the opportunities” for communication between our peoples. He emphasized the “uniqueness” of Russian-Danish relations: after all, the first treaty was concluded more than 500 years ago, and since then the countries have never fought.
“We expect that the Russian-Danish intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation will more actively use our capabilities and that companies of the two countries will more actively cooperate with each other directly, including on the Nord Stream project,” the head of Russian diplomacy said yesterday. Bilateral trade turnover increased in 2007 by more than 10% and amounted to $3.33 billion. Agreements on long-term supplies of Russian gas to Denmark were reached between Gazprom and the Danish DONG Energy.