Philip Steinberg, a political geography professor at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, estimates Russia’s submission expands its original claim by about 705,000 square kilometres.
Countries have sovereignty over their zones but can submit scientific evidence to the UN to claim control over the soil and subsoil of the extended continental shelf. “We haven’t seen a country before that’s extended over its neighbours. Here’s a situation where they’re claiming the entire Canadian and Danish continental shelf as part of their continental shelf.”
“I don’t think anyone should assume that Russia will do anything less than pursue its maximum foreign policy interests.” “Setting out to negotiate where the outermost limits would be was something that was always in the cards,” Lackenbauer said. In a statement, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said Canada “remains firmly committed to exercising in full its sovereign rights in the Arctic” according to international law.