As Russia makes a nuisance of itself again by claiming huge areas of the Arctic Ocean seabed (a subject I have previously vented on), I realized that I still don't really understand why Canada does not have complete sovereignty over the Northwest Passage (a separate issue, but equally contentious).
The Northwest Passage (of which there are several different variants - see map below) runs between several islands abutting the Arctic Ocean, all of which belong to Canada. Expanding out the coastline of Canada's various islands by 200 nautical miles (230 miles, or 370 kilometres), means that most of the Northwest Passage (whichever one you choose) should be completely within Canadian waters. So, why are we not able to legally dictate who enters and passes through it?
The problem is that the 200 nautical mile rule, established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), only delineates the country's "exclusive economic zone" (EEZ), the area within which the country has rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including fishing, power generation, drilling, etc.
That same UN convention defines the "territorial seas" of countries, the coastal waters which are considered the sovereign territory of the state. This only extends out to 12 nautical miles (14 miles, or 22 kilometres) from the land. This, then, leaves huge swathes of the straits between Canada's Arctic islands as international waters, so that foreign vessels do in fact have rights of transit passage.
So, although Canada can regulate fishing and resource development within the Northwest Passage, and can even regulate environmental conditions (albeit to a limited extent), it cannot block passage to shipping from other countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment