Special to WorldTribune.com

By Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com

On Dec. 6, Canada officially filed a territorial claim over a large area including the North Pole to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, to the great chagrin of Russia and Demark, the two countries that also insist on the same claim.

While Denmark’s counter-claim is relatively dormant, Canada’s move is an apparent response to Russia’s recent deployment of an Arctic Brigade to the disputed region to stake Moscow’s claim in a menacing fashion.

Russia and Canada are fighting over a 1,200-mile long Lomomosov Ridge that runs through the polar region.

In addition, Canada has stepped up its military maneuvers in recent years specifically designed to protect its own territorial claims in the polar region.

The incumbent conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has significantly beefed up its annual Arctic military drills in the polar tundra, pitting Canada’s military aircraft such as C-17 transport and CF-18 fighter jets against Russian military presence nearby — Russia’s Tu-95 Bear heavy bombers were sometimes in visual distance from a Canadian military post in the region.

At issue is the legal definition of continental shelf and its natural extension.

The new Canadian claim would give Ottawa a huge Arctic area, or nearly 460,000 square miles.

  Canada’s Christmas card to world stakes its claim to the North Pole, Lomomosov Ridge, Stephen Harper, United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf