Canada's mapping of the Arctic is pushing into territory claimed by Russia in the high-stakes drive by countries to establish clear title to the polar region and its seabed riches.
Survey flights Ottawa conducted in late winter and early spring went beyond the North Pole and into an area where Russia has staked claims, a Canada Department of Natural Resources official said.
Arctic security experts say this foray demonstrates Canada is refusing to back down from Russia's increasingly assertive behavior in the region.
"It shows we're going to the maximum of what we scientifically can claim," said Rob Huebert, associate director of the University of Calgary's Center for Military and Strategic Studies. "It clearly indicates Canada is making good on its pledge not to be intimidated in the High Arctic."
Canada's airborne surveys --- aerogravity readings of undersea formations and ridges in the High Arctic -- took place between mid-March and late April this year.
They're a necessary preliminary step if Canada wants to gather evidence for a claim that extends beyond the North Pole into Russian territory. Moscow claimed territory up to the North Pole in its 2001 submission under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but was told by adjudicators to gather more evidence.
It is estimated that a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas lies under the Arctic.
Huebert said the past-the-Pole surveying also explains the forcefulness of statements in recent months from the government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has been particularly vociferous on Arctic sovereignty.
"It was basically just setting the stage" for this, Huebert said.
In March, Foreign Canadian Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon warned Russia that Canada "would not be bullied" into ceding sovereignty in the North after reports that Moscow had created a military force dedicated to defend Arctic claims.
In February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper rebuked Russia for military training flights that skirt Canadian airspace, decrying what he called "Russian intrusions" and vowing to "respond every time the Russians make any kind of intrusion on the sovereignty of Canada's Arctic."
Canada is amassing data to build its claim, which must be submitted by 2013.
Canadian scientists contend that the underwater Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of the North American continental shelf. Ottawa hopes to use this to establish title to adjacent seabed territory under the UN process that will adjudicate claims.
If Canada eventually files a claim that extends past the North Pole, it could find itself in conflict with Russia.
Moscow is expected to update its 2001 claim with new scientific evidence, but it's not anticipated the Russians will back away from earlier efforts to stake out territory right up to the North Pole. In 2007, a Russian submarine drove this point home when it dropped a titanium Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole.
Canada and Russia have both committed to a peaceful resolution of conflicts over claims submitted under the international process, a pledge Huebert said will be put to the test if Ottawa and Moscow submit overlapping stakes.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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