Canada Pledges to Work With US Over Competing Claims to Arctic Sea Floor

The Canadian government is pledging to work with its American counterparts after the US claimed parts of the Arctic sea floor that Canada also wants, according to CBC.

"Canada and the US are in frequent communication with regards to the continental shelf in the Arctic and have expressed their commitment along with other Arctic states to the orderly settlement of overlapping claims," says Grantly Franklin, spokesman for Global Affairs Canada. 

Franklin says that Canada expects to follow the process set out in a United Nations treaty despite the US not ratifying the Convention on the Law of the Sea. Although the U.S. has not signed the convention, it has pledged to work within it.

The US claim includes a large chunk of the Beaufort Sea floor that Canada also seeks to control. The rights of an extended continental shelf involve managing the environment and developing natural resources on the ocean floor, but it does not include control over fisheries or shipping.

The UN does not rule on boundaries but evaluates the science behind each country's claim and leaves it to them to negotiate a settlement.

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