The United States has made a “New Year’s gift” to itself by declaring about one million square kilometres of the Arctic seabed its property, Bloomberg reports. Washington called this territory “an extension of the continental shelf”.
The Arctic is home to vast reserves of mineral resources, from oil and gas to rare metals like lithium and dysprosium. The region is of strategic importance in this regard, and Russia and Canada also lay claim to it.
However, such actions cannot be taken unilaterally. In addition, the United States has invoked the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). At the same time, they are the only major country that has not ratified this international document to this day.
By such actions, Washington is trying to hurt its competitors (primarily Russia) in the region and create another hotbed of tension here.